Jane Bertram has everything she could ask for. A loving partner. Friends. A beautiful home. Security. Then, time takes them away. Having worked so hard and lost so much, can an ailing Jane once again overcome old demons? Or will she succumb to long-buried shadows and ghosts? With time running out, will she remember how to spin straw into gold?

The First and Last Lesson is the fourth novel of a four-book series that began with Blackbird and includes My Mother's Daughter and The Perfect Mother. The quartet explores the taboos, history, and texture of women's struggles during a profoundly transformative period of the twentieth century.