Tracee is a runaway bride and kleptomaniac. Lana's an audacious beauty and a recovering alcoholic. Rita is a holy-roller minister's wife, desperate to escape her marriage and discover whether she actually has a mind of her own.

One warm summer's night, these three women go on the lam together. Their car breaks down on a rural highway in North Carolina and they're forced to seek shelter in a seemingly abandoned nightclub. Which is where they meet Marcel. And soon everything changes.

Marcel, you see, is a lion, a retired circus performer stuck in a cage in this godforsaken roadhouse. And through admiration - one might even say love - for Marcel, our heroines find a way to confront their complicated pasts and fight for the strange, embracing relationships they've formed out in the middle of nowhere. They ultimately navigate their way back to their own hearts - and ours.

Written with the deftness, humor, and sparkling wit that have marked her books, plays, and movies, Delia Ephron's The Lion Is In is an unforgettable story of friendship, courage, love - and learning to salsa with the king of the jungle.