When Sylvie Furst and Cassandra Puffin meet at Bennington College, that Vermont haven for well-to-do young eccentrics and liberal-arts students, they firmly believe theirs will be a friendship for the ages. From the heyday of college through those first delirious post-college years, the two girls have nothing but each other and their charmingly decorated apartments to keep them afloat.

In this memoir, Charlotte Silver recalls her childhood growing up in her glamorous mother’s Harvard Square restaurant. When the restaurant nears financial collapse, Charlotte realizes the sacrifices her mother has made in running a kitchen while raising a family.