Chicago in the Roaring ‘20s offers life-changing opportunities for women. When young Catherine Donahue takes a full-time job her husband warns her, “Work can cost you something.” But at the Radium Dial Company she finds new friends and new strength that serve her well when it comes time to pay the price. Melanie Marnich’s work of creative non-fiction artfully weaves together actual events and vivid characters to look at the ways we define ourselves by our work — and the evanescence of time.