In 1964, Vivian Schuyler, an aspiring writer who came from a wealthy family, worked as a fact checker at her college friend Gogo's father's magazine in New York. One day, an old suitcase arrived at the post office originally addressed to a Violet Grant, then crossed out and addressed to Vivian. When she went to the post office to pick it up, Vivian met a handsome young doctor, Paul, who gallantly let her take his place in line as the post office was closing, then carried the suitcase to her place up five floors. They ended up spending the day together. That same day, when Vivian called to ask her parents if they knew who Violet Grant was, her mother gave her no information at all. So Vivian decided to call her Grand-aunt Julie. Julie knew the name Violet Grant:
"'Darling, she was my sister. My older sister, Violet. A scientist. She murdered her husband in Berlin in 1914 and ran off with her lover, and nobody's heard from her since.'"
Interesting, huh? So as the book progresses, it turned out that Doctor Paul was dating Vivian's friend Gogo, but was in love with Vivian. A bit messy. Meanwhile, Vivian was trying to find out any information she could about Grand-aunt Violet. She had opened the suitcase and found some interesting items, then went looking for information at the library and in the magazine's archives. She convinced her boss at the magazine that she had an article to write that the magazine would love (about Violet Grant and her disappearance) so her boss agreed to send her to London to learn what she could.
Suffice to say, Vivian solved the mystery of Violet and her disappearance. It was a good story all-in-all. The chapters alternated between Vivian and Violet's stories. I found Vivian to be a bit annoying with her wise-cracking at times, but not enough to quit reading the book. I had a bit of a problem with why her family had never wanted to find out what really happened to Violet, but I had to let that go.
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