The 42nd Parallel

We find a young country at the dawn of the twentieth century where the lives and fortunes of five characters are spliced together and unfold. Mac, whose career embraced everything from selling The Queen of the White Slaves from a buggy to consorting with wobblies and running a bookstore in Mexico. Janey, whose brother joined the navy, whose mission in life was to be an adoring secretary. J. Ward Moorehouse, who divorced the dissolute daughter of a Philadelphia doctor, spent the night with a Pittsburgh heiress, married her and became an eminent Public Relations Counsel with the aid of her fortune. Eleanor, who as a girl swore that she would kill herself if a man ever touched her, later entered into a very beautiful and platonic friendship with Moorehouse. Charley, who was in love with Emiscah until he thought he had to marry her, who ended up on a boat for France and the War.