The masterpiece

For the nearly nine million people who live in New York City Grand Central Terminal is a crown jewel a masterpiece of design. But for Clara Darden and Virginia Clay it represents something quite different. For Clara the terminal is the stepping stone to her future which she is certain will shine as the brightly as the constellations on the main concourse ceiling. It is 1928 and twenty-five-year-old Clara is teaching at the lauded Grand Central School of Art. A talented illustrator she has dreams of creating cover art for Vogue but not even the prestige of the school can override the public's disdain for a "woman artist." Brash fiery confident and single-minded--even while juggling the affections of two men a wealthy would-be poet and a brilliant experimental painter--Clara is determined to achieve every creative success. But she and her bohemian friends have no idea that they'll soon be blindsided by the looming Great Depression an insatiable monster with the power to destroy the entire art scene. Nearly fifty years later in 1974 the terminal has declined almost as sharply as Virginia Clay's life. Full of grime and danger from the smoke-blackened ceiling to the pickpockets and drug dealers who roam the floor Grand Central is at the center of a fierce lawsuit: Is the once-grand building a landmark to be preserved or a cancer to be demolished? For Virginia it is simply her last resort.