The women's club - Margaret Bard

A lifesaver, a career-maker, an exclusive indoor playground for successful women, the Club is founder Gwen Roberts’ dream come true. Whether its members are in need of a massage, a computer course, or one of the Club’s extra-special "personal services", it’s a luxurious haven where pampered members can treat themselves, help themselves and at the same time be themselves. But the Club is heading for a crisis – like three of its best-known members...

Miriam Newman – the Oscar-nominated actress whose politician lover is beginning to believe his own hype. On the verge of announcing to the press he’s going to stand for President, he’s just announced to Miriam that, after seven years, she’s out of the running as his wife...

Susie Krumins – the millionaire owner of the Kookie Krums chain; with the help of the Club she’s moved from being a failed homemaker to becoming America’s cookie queen. But in the process her marriage to her fashionable architect husband has crumbled, and it still hurts...

Sara Town – prime-time tv journalist, she and Gwen Roberts were once close friends. But Gwen stumbled on a secret Sara spent years trying to hide – and now, in the ladies room, on the eve of the Club’s tenth birthday party, Sara’s discovered something about Gwen which could destroy both Gwen and the Club that has become her life...