Two estranged sisters find that forgiveness never goes out of style
when they inherit their mother's vintage jackets, purses... and pearls
of wisdom
Estranged half-sisters Gabrielle Winslow and Lulu Quattro have only two
things in common: mounds of debt and coils of unresolved enmity toward
Bette Bradford, their controlling and imperious recently deceased
mother.
Gabrielle, the firstborn, was raised in relative luxury on Manhattan's
rarefied Upper East Side. Now, at fifty-five, her life as a Broadway
costume designer married to a heralded Broadway producer has exploded in
divorce.
Lulu, who spent half her childhood under the tutelage of her
working-class Brooklyn grandparents, is a grieving widow at forty-eight.
With her two sons grown, her life feels reduced to her work at the
Ditmas Park bakery owned by her late husband's family.
The two sisters arrive for the reading of their mother's will, expecting
to divide a sizable inheritance, pay off their debts, and then again
turn their backs on each other.
But to their shock, what they have been left is their mother's secret
walk-in closet jammed with high-end current and vintage designer clothes
and accessories-- most from Chanel.
Contemplating the scale of their mother's self-indulgence, the sisters
can't help but wonder if Lauren Weisberger had it wrong: because it
seems, in fact, that the devil wore Chanel. But as they being to explore
their mother's collection, meet and fall in love with her group of warm,
wonderful friends, and magically find inspiring messages tucked away in
her treasures -- it seems as though their mother is advising Lulu and
Gabrielle from the beyond -- helping them rediscover themselves and
restore their relationship with each other.
