Joy Nelson is 20 years old, when a bit of good luck finds her going to Boston to study music. She ends up staying with two hard drinking, hard partying flappers, the bitchy Sarah and vivacious Jerry, who introduce her to a world of rouge, hootch, college dances, house parties and boys in cars. 

The themes are also very Much of their time, the relationship between men and women and how the flappers are changing the way boys behave - or is it that flappers have changed because of the boys? One of Joys central conflicts is whether she will be able to put away love for a career in opera, or whether she will be able to find a man who will let her love him and her music.