Content Warning: Both the source text and this guide contain depictions of rape, wartime violence, suicidal ideation, torture, and murder.

The Lost Girls of Paris opens in 1946 with the first of the book’s three female protagonists: Grace Healey. Grace lives in New York City and works as an assistant to an immigration lawyer. In the aftermath of World War II, the small law practice, Bleeker & Sons, helps many refugees arriving from war-torn Europe. Today, Grace is not taking her accustomed route to work because she spent the night away from her apartment. (The narrative later reveals that she encountered her late husband’s college roommate, Mark, and spent the night with him.) Grace is flustered by this uncharacteristic behavior.

On her way to work, Grace is delayed by a street closure because a woman has just been struck and killed by a car. (Grace will later discover that this woman is Eleanor Trigg, another of the novel’s protagonists.) For now, Grace is upset because the road closure will force her to cut through Grand Central Station. Grace usually avoids the train station because it was there that she learned of her husband’s death as she awaited his arrival on a train.