Not Natty-Chapter One

Rose arrives home to a very ill Harry. She wished he'd never stopped practicing law. Harry tries to reconnect with his daughters.

It's 1948. Time to return to Brooklyn. Laura, Rose's close friend, begins to take over their lives.

Harry is a religious Jew. Both he and Rose were raised that way but she scorns observances. Natty has a friend, Cathy, at school. Cathy is not Jewish and worries her parents will not allow the friendship if they know Natty is Jewish. The kids call Natty "Brooklyn." Meanwhile, men start to notice Abby and Abby starts to notice herself.

Harry, a diabetic, is slowly killing himself with food. Natty and Abby beg to return home to Brooklyn to see him. Harry tries to restore his marriage to Rose. But she's disappointed to be back. Before he knows it, Rose is planning to return to Cleveland. In Cleveland,. Abby continues to torment her sister. Natty makes a good friend who seems to like her despite Natty feeling lost and insecure.

The war in Europe is ending. Harry decides to manage an Army-Navy store. Natty is living in Cleveland as her mother and Abby explore where to go next to try to cure Abby. Rose allows her cousin, recently discharged from the service, to move into their apartment. Natty sleeps on the couch. Harry visits his family in Cleveland with mixed results.

Rose flirts at the Casablanca Cafe owned by Bob Firestone and his partner, Maxie Diamond. Natty and Harry write to each other over the long summer while she languishes in Cleveland and Harry sits in Brooklyn, Natty starts school as her mother and Abby travel the state looking for help for Abby's illness.

Natty, Rose, and Abby are in Cleveland. Rose left Harry at home in Brooklyn. Natty watches her mother, Rose, a nurse, as she leaves for work. Natty and her sister Abby stay with relatives. Abby has become increasingly unpredictable in her behavior. Grandpa Sam and Grandma Gisela, tailors, tell the girls stories of their life in Budapest.

Harry considers what happened in 1930 that drastically changed his life. He encounters Bob Firestone's friend Detective Wasserman

The world is at war. Rose is flirtatious and vain. Her best friend, Laura, captures all her attention to the neglect of Harry and Natty. Rose decides to take Abby to Cleveland to see doctors there. She will leave Harry, increasingly ill, at home and leave Natty with her relatives in Cleveland. Rose and Harry's marriage is beginning to unravel. Harry, a former attorney, strives to make a living managing one store after another.

Bob Firestone harbored no guilt for what he'd done to Harry. Bob ends up in court for labor racketeering. Eliot Ness gets involved in his case. Will Bob pay for his crimes?