A gate at the stairs

As the U.S. gears up for war in the Middle East, Tassie Keltjin, 20, Midwestern daughter of a gentleman hill farmer, has become a college student in a university town. Her brain's on fire with Chaucer, Sylvia Plath, and Simone de Beauvoir. Between semesters, she takes a part-time nanny job. The family seems mysterious and glamorous to her, and although Tassie thought children were boring, she comes to care for their newly adopted little girl. As...