Summary: Lessons in Chemistry: A Novel

Description

In the narrow-minded 1960s, Elizabeth Zott is a sharp-witted and deeply undervalued chemist among her male colleagues. After being unfairly fired, she hesitantly becomes the host of a cooking show targeted at the average housewife, Supper at Six. Only she doesn’t set out to pleasantly smile and make cocktails, but rather to introduce her female audience to the world of science and chemistry.

Her journey starts when she meets her chemical and romantic match, Calvin Evans. Together they navigate the rocky terrain of scientific research, relationships, cumbersome coworkers, and rowing until their love story is prematurely cut short, and Elizabeth and their intelligent dog, Six-thirty, are left to pick up the pieces.

However, there are things that even the brilliant Elizabeth doesn’t know about her significant other, as secrets and mysteries start to unravel from his haunted past. Unbeknownst to her, another surprise that he had left for her is just on the way.

Suddenly, she’s fired from the only field of work she’d ever prided herself in and left at an impasse. Until she meets Walter, an anxious producer with an impending deadline to find a TV star, which he does—in Elizabeth. Her show, Supper at Six, captivates America with science-based nutritional meals and strict chemistry lessons but also infuriates the close-minded populace and the show’s executive producer.

Having dealt with being spoken over and unrecognized her entire life, especially in her groundbreaking chemical research, she has always prevailed in the face of adversity. But this time, it’ll take more than sheer will and self-determination to overcome her severe depression.

With the help of her unlikely found family consisting of Walter, her neighbor, a coxswain, her literate dog, and a minister, she must find the strength to start each day anew and prove, with scientific precision, that all who’ve doubted her are wrong.