Banned from selling anything written this century, bookstore manager Maggie Banks, to keep the business afloat, starts an underground book club that unexpectedly unearths a town secret that could upend everything, forcing her to choose between the books that formed a small town's history or the stories poised to change it all.

By day an assistant at a prestigious London art house, Judith Rasleigh is at night a hostess at one of the capital's notorious champagne bars. She's transformed her accent and taught herself about wine -- and the art of discretion. When her efforts at a better life are destroyed, Judith accompanies one of the champagne bar's biggest clients to the French Riviera -- and finds a chance to recreate herself.