The Book Club for Troublesome Women

It is March of 1963. In a planned development suburb of Virginia called Concordia, 33-year-old Margaret Ryan, a homemaker, prepares to receive three other women at her home for the first meeting of their book club. Her three children marvel at how dressed up Margaret is, and they examine the book she is reading. Margaret answers her children’s questions, revealing that the other book club members are Theodora Leonora “Bitsy” Cobb, Vivian “Viv” Buschetti, and Charlotte Gustafson, who has recently moved into Concordia. Margaret privately muses on the sense of vindication and relief she felt when she read their first book, Betty Friedan’s The Feminine Mystique.

Later that morning, 39-year-old Charlotte meets with Dr. Ernest Barry, her psychiatrist, who is pompous and dismissive. Charlotte describes the loathing she feels for her husband Howard, whom her father prefers over her; her oldest daughter Denise’s desire to go to Oxford after graduation; and how her art has been turned down by yet another gallery. Dr. Barry is pleased when Charlotte mentions the book club, but he turns disapproving when he learns which book they will be reading.