Terrible virtue

A fictional portrait of one of the most influential figures of the twentieth century follows the founder of Planned Parenthood, Margaret Sanger, who sacrificed two husbands, three children, and scores of lovers in her fight for sexual equality and freedom.

The daughter of a hard-drinking, smooth-tongued free thinker and a mother worn down by thirteen children, Margaret Sanger vowed her life would be different. Trained as a nurse, she eventually channeled her energy to one singular cause: legalizing contraception. This richly imagined portrait of a larger-than-life woman is at once sympathetic to her suffering and unsparing of her faults.