The following story is fictional and does
not depict any actual person or event.
mark my words,lawrence,if these teetotalers get their way,
- prohibition will be enacted.
- It'll never happen,sir.
You can actually make your own record,frances.
{a }June ,
- In shellac,right,mother?
- And play it on your own gramophone.
- Isn't that thrilling?
- Fascinating.
A man's libation is sacred,worth going to w*r over.
The w*r to end all wars wasn't enough for you,father?
Elizabeth,please restrain our young filly from eavesdropping.
I'm ,father,hardly a filly.
Lawrence,I don't know how you tolerate frances's behavior the way you do.
I find her spirit refreshing,if somewhat droll.
And I find being spoken about as if I weren't present somewhat irksome.
That is quite enough out of you.
Mary pickford's got a new picture out.
Should we all go?
You two go.I've had my fill of female histrionics for one day.
Don't frown,dear.
It makes you look so dour.
Votes for women.
Ratify the th amendment so women can vote!
Speak of the devil.
Teetotalers themselves.
Votes for women!
Ratify the th amendment so women can vote all across our great land.
Votes for women.
Votes for women.
here we go again.
A woman's place is in the kitchen!
Not rabble-rousing in the street!
You are the rabble-rousers.
What on earth are you doing?
They're awfully brave.
They're an awful nuisance is what they are.
Are you detective rush?
- Yes.And you are?
- Emma stone.
My women's studies professor mentioned you in a lecture.
Really?
Yeah,she tracks women in traditionally male-dominated professions.
Says you're the only female homicide detective in philly.
Well,there are two of us now,actually.
em...My great-great aunt frances stone was m*rder*d.
- Great-great?
- .
She was thrown off the second story landing of my great-great grandfather's house.
Old money: Grand houses and the families
who lived in them in turn-of-the-century philadelphia.
My grandmother's favorite book.
The earmarked pages are about my family.
Now that's what I call a house.
It's all gone now.
The house,the money.
The suspects.
My grammy stone gave this to me before she d*ed last week.
His name was lawrence wakelee.
He was frances's fiance.
And that's frances?
She's beautiful.
They broke off the engagement just before she was k*lled.
- Grammy stone say anything else?
- No.
but I found this...
hidden inside the locket.
I think it's a love letter.
"My dearest phil,
if our secret passion's revealed,"our lives would be in great danger.
"We must proceed with caution.
Yours as ever,frances.
So franny was stepping out.
And maybe the fiance found out,k*lled her?
So you'll look into it?
Solving this case isn't gonna bring back the good old days.
Frances's m*rder haunted my grammy stone.
She was as close to a mother as I ever had.
So you're doing this for her?
- Be our coldest job yet.
- Record breaker.
So...
what are we waiting for?
Let's break out the ice picks.
June , .
Frances may stone d*ed of injuries caused by a fall
- from the second story of their house.
- Broke her neck.
Scratches on the forearms,defensive wounds.
Means frances put up a fight.
Family wasn't home.
No witnesses,no leads.
Pretty thin.
The stones were rich.Father oed one of the largest breweries in philly.
You'd think there'd be a big investigation.
Unless the family didn't want a scandal.
Keep their names out of the press.
So what do we got on our potential doer lawrence wakelee?
Just the locket,the note.
And these gossip columns the old hat squad had in their investigation.
"The setting could not have been more perfect "for the engagement
of mr.Lawrence wakelee to miss frances stone...
I had this made for you.
Who is this handsome devil?
I'd like to meet him.
Don't joke,frances.
I'm sorry.
I'll treasure it.Thank you.
I had something else made for you,as well.
Will you marry me,frances stone?
Oh,lawrence,I don't know what to say.
I do.Because our life is going to be grand.
I know just the house we'll live in,that you'll run,d just the number of children we'll have and...
but I don't know if I even want to run a house or have children.
Frances...
- what kind of talk is that?
- I was accepted at vassar,you know.
But you've already found a husband.
Is that all you think college is for?
- I know you love your books,frances.
- I want to do more than read,lawrence.
I want to experience life firsthand.
I want to see the world,maybe write about it.
Your father already gave his blessing to our marriage.
So what I want is really beside the point,anyway,isn't it?
Frances,this should be the happiest day of your life.
- I mean,I am quite a catch,as they say.
- I know you are,lawrence.
Excuse me,ma'am,sir.
Both your parents were wondering if there was any news you'd like to convey.
Well,frances,is there?
Yes,there is.
tell them I have accepted the proposal of mr.Wakelee.
Oh,frances,you are going to be so happy.
I know you are.
Mr.Wakelee,miss stone.
The woman with the black eye,here in the corner...
her name is listed as philippa abruzzi,
housemaid.
Philippa.
Phil.
- Rush.Uh-huh.
- That's who frances's love note was addressed to.
No wonder she was so afraid of their secret passion being revealed.
Okay,thanks.
sorry,boss.Got to make a run.
I'll be back.
Get up,mom.
Lilly.em..
What..waht are you doing here?
I could ask you the same thing,but I won'T.
Thank you for coming.
Now go away.
I don't want you to see me like this.
Like it would be a first.
Oh.
Jackie left me.
when?
I haven't heard from him in five months.
Is that why you haven't returned my calls?
Call.
Let's go,mom.
- squad car's gonna take you home.
- You can't?
No,mom.
Oh,right.
Your precious j-o-B.
I'll come by the apartment later.
Don't bother.
We could've come to see you,audrey.
Oh,and miss the chance to get out of old folk's calisthenics?
Oh,please.
You're doing me a favor.
looks like you've been doing calisthenics.
We'd like to ask you some questions about your mother,philippa.
She worked for the stone family?
Oh,for ten years.
Can you tell us about her relationship with frances stone?
Oh,sure.I grew up in that house
till the stones went broke on account of prohibition,
and they had to fire everyone.
Your mom and frances were close?
Oh,like sisters.
frances was a natural born teacher.
Taught my mom to read.
Unusual for the time,women from different classes getting close.
Oh,very.
But frances was a modern girl for her day.
Very progressive.
Any chance they were...
closer than sisters?
Like lovers?
Hmm,men love to think that,don't they?
We found what appears to be a love letter
from frances to your mother.
Very sorry to disappoint you,but no,they weren'T.
Although sometimes I wish they had been.
My mother had terrible taste in men.
Anyone you can think of,maybe get the wrong idea about your mom and frances?
All I know is
my mother and frances
did have a secret,
but it wasn't sexual.
- hi,aunt franny.
- Hello,audrey.
Will you read me a story later?
Yes,but I need to talk to your mother right now.
About her black eye?
My dad gave it to her.
Audrey...
go upstairs.
Is that true,phil?
He hit you?
It's your fault.You never should have taught me to read.
He hit you for reading?
For reading this.
He hates suffragettes.
- He should be arrested.
- For hitting his wife?
They'd have to arrest half the men in philadelphia.
I saw them passing these out getting pelted.
- I like how they don't back down.
- Me,too.
There's a meeting tomorrow night.
If my husband caught me at a suffragette meeting...
if your husband came to a meeting,they'd string him up.
Now that's a sight I'd like to see.
Just think if we could vote,phil.
Men would have to listen to us.
Treat us like equals.
Now that's a sight I'd like to see.
My father treating me as something other than his little filly.
We could pass laws punishing men who b*at their wives.
And audrey,she could become a lawyer...
send those jackasses to jail.
It hurts to even think about.
It hurts not to.
so their secret passion was political?
They were suffragettes.
Opens up a whole new suspect pool.
Like all the men who were opposed to women getting the vote.
Like frances's father.
Why's that?
Because he knew that women were the driving force
behind prohibition.
And prohibition is what ruined him.
grandma stone didn't like to toss much.
You really think frances's father might have k*lled his own daughter?
Well,if he thought she was betraying him,sure.
Seen murders happen for a lot less.
Check this out...sophie tucker.
She was elizabeth's favorite.
Ipod of .
I think I found something.
What?
Frances's diary.
"june , .
"I should be overjoyed at lawrence's proposal,"
but all I can think about "is mother reading to me as a girl.
"How excited she was by the words,the places described.
the places described.
"And how she is now...
needlepointing her life away.
" Sounds like franny wanted more.
June ,the last entry.
Anything about her father?
No,her first suffragette meeting.
"I felt like alice in wonderland entering that house
through the looking glass,"and peering into my very own future,"
one where my ideas were appreciated,not patronized,
by a woman unlike any I had ever met before.
Half the legislators are in favor of ratification.
And half are against,with less than a dozen undecided.
And the vote is in less than two weeks.
So the question is how to best influence those undecideds to our way of thinking.
- What do you think?
- Me?
Yes,you.
Well,I just came to listen,really.
You haven't had enough of listening to men decide our future?
I...
what was the question?
How to get the undecided men in the pennsylvania legislature
to ratify the th amendment.
Well,maybe,I...
I think we could picket their houses.
Let them know we know who they are.
That's very good,
miss...?
Stone.
Frances stone.
And this is philippa abruzzi.
and why are you here,frances?
I saw you on the street,standing up to those men.
Fearless...
I want to be like that.
A suffragette has to be tough,frances.
Tough enough to withstand shouts,
and projectiles and even fists.
- Are you ready for that?
- I'd like to think I am.
Pardon me,
ladies.
Frances,come along.
- But,mother.
- Now!
And you...
I dragged her here,mother.
No one just barges into my home uninvited.
You,and your kind,will leave my daughter out of your sordid affairs.
- will leave my daughter out of your sordid affairs.
- I came on my own accord,mother.
And you will leave on your own accord as well.
And if I refuse?
Someone will be looking for a new job.
Good day...
ladies.
We're not ladies,lady.
We're suffragettes.
this little rebellion of yours ends now,frances.
Or else.
diary ends there.
I had no idea there was a civil w*r going on in my family.
So it wasn't the dad that had it out for her.
It was mother against daughter.
And elizabeth wasn't the backing down type.
You mind if we take this with us?
My grandmother used to needlepoint these.
Domestic angels.
What's a "domestic angel"?
Perfect woman,or what they thought was one back then.
See any that look like me?
Single,working moms?
"A meeting of the philadelphia chapter "of the woman's suffrage association
will take place "on june
at the home of chapter president alice B.Harris.
" That's the same meeting elizabeth stone dragged frances out of.
There are notes on the back,handwritten.
Frances's?
"A woman's first obligation is to maintain domestic harmony.
" Sounds more like elizabeth.
Like she was preparing to give frances a lecture.
Yeah,and these are her talking points.
I cannot believe you dragged me out of that meeting.
How did you even know I was there?
did you go in my room?
Search through my things?
Lawrence told me you're having second thoughts about the engagement.
Oh!What is happening to you,frances?
Why should men have the right to vote and we shouldn't?
Because politics is a dirty business full of dirty men.
And we need to keep our hands clean,is that it?
We have a responsibility to remain above the fray.
Phil's husband beats her,do you know that?
That's their business.
And there is nothing she can do about it
because she doesn't have any rights.
And what about you,mother?
Needlepointing all night while father's out doing god knows what.
Your father has a business to run.
And you have what,a household?
Is that really all you want?
Why do you try and hide how smart you are?
It's like you're ashamed of it.
On the contrary,I'm proud of who I am.
Of this family.
Of your father's accomplishments.
If women get the vote,
prohibition will be enacted and this family will be ruined.
Is that what you want?
I want to accomplish something on my own.
And what about my accomplishments?
I've dedicated my life to this family,to who and what we are.
to who and what we are.
I won't survive our ruination.
But you can save us.
You know what they're up to.
You want me to spy on them?
A woman's lot in life is hard,frances.
Her choices few.
Please,mother,don't ask this of me.
The sooner you accept the truth,
the better off you'll be.
now that's a mom who knows how to lay down a guilt trip.
And if frances caved,betrayed the suffragettes like her mom wanted...
suffragettes become the suspects.
'Cause those women weren't fooling around.
Especially not with a benedict arnold in their midst.
Mom.
you wake?
I haven't had a chance to tidy up.
I don't have the energy i just used to have,you know?
Well,maybe if you eat something,it might help settle the vodka.
I feel so tired all the time.
What you need to do,mom,
is stop making excuses
and start going to your aa meetings again.
I will.
- I promise.
- That's what you said last time.
I've been cleaning up your messes since I was a kid.
I know.
Oh!
- It's got to stop.
- It will.
- I-I'm gettinin too old for this is.
- no,I'm the one that's getting too old for this.
- You think I like being like this?
- Sometimes I think you do.
I got a lot of good years left.
I could still meet someone,huh?
You clean up real nice.
You always have.
Yeah.
Well,that's exactly what I'm going to do.
I'm really going to do it this time.
Oh,I promise,lilly.
I promise.
Lilly rush?The only female homicide detective in philadelphia?
Well,there's two now.
And I'm detective vera,one of the nameless male horde.
your student,emma stone,
- came to see us about her relative's m*rder.
- How can I help?
You're an expert on the suffragette movement?Alice B.Harris?
Wrote my thesis on her.
Well,she might not be the hero you think she is.
What could possibly make you believe that?
Well,alice was the leader of the women's movement in philly,right?
Which means if someone betrayed her,she'd have the most to lose.
- Who would betray alice?
- Emma's relative,frances stone.
Because her family owned the brewery.
Wanted to put the suffragettes out of business because of their support of prohibition.
Frances spied on alice for her family.
And we think alice might have found out,
k*lled her.
- But frances stone wasn't a traitor.
- How do you know?
Because I had the honor of interviewing alice before she d*ed.
She talked about frances?
I have the recordings in here.
Alice had high hopes for frances.
Then again,she had high hopes for the women's movement,too.
Wanted votes for women in every country.
Here's the file.
I remember one girl in particular
who I thought was the face of our movement.
All heart and no guile.
are you sure it's wise to put the legislators' names on the
banners,alice?
They have to know we know who they are.
Isn't that what you said?
- Remember,frances,we're only as strong...
- As our greatest fear.
Where's your friend,frances,the one who came to the last meeting with you?
- She couldn't make it.
- Did your mother fire her?
No,but...
I'm not feeling very well.
Will you excuse me?
I know who your father is,frances.
- You do?
- I'm a suffragette,not a teetotaler.
If you knew,then why allow me to join your chapter?
Because I trust you.
You shouldn'T.
- You think you're trapped?
- I am.
You're a spoiled,rich girl living in a gilded cage.
But you are also a smart,passionate young woman who knows right
from wrong.
passionate young woman who knows right from wrong.
A woman who would never betray what she believes in.
How can you be so sure?
Because I was just like you not so long ago.
- You were?
- In over my head.
Not sure what I'd really got myself into.
Not even sure if it was worth it.
- But it was?
- We are going to change the course of history,frances.
How many people do you know who could say that?
this is an illegal gathering.
You're all under arrest.
- It wasn't me.I didn't tell anyone.
- I know.
What's the meaning of this?
There are no laws against a gathering of women.
- There's been a report of illegal activity.
- What illegal activity?
- Operating a bordello.
- That's absurd.
You want to add resisting arrest to the prostitution charges?
- You know when I said you had to be tough?
- I'm ready.
if women today knew what women back then had to go through,
they wouldn't take the vote for granted.
No mention in the m*rder file of frances ever being arrested.
That's odd.
Everyone at that meeting was.
It's documented.
June , .
It's the same day frances was k*lled.
Well,alice harris and four other women
were booked into broad street station at,uh
: P.M
On june .
Incarcerated on charges of deviant sexual behavior
and resisting arrest.
Held for three days before a judge voided the charges.
Only one other woman was taken into custody at broad street that day.
Yeah.
Jane smith.
At : .
A single white female placed in a holding cell until further notice.
Exact same time.
No way that's a coincidence.
Well,stone's a famous name in philly back then.
Yeah,jailor might have separated her out,
used smith as an alias because frances was a society girl.
: P.m
A mr.Smith and jones request and receive permission to see the prisoner.
Well,according to the log,jailor escorted smith and jones to the cell,
noting how agitated the men were,
how the older one stood back
to let the younger one get the first cr*ck at the prisoner.
Right this way, gentlemen.
Frances?
Lawrence?
How did you...?
All that matters is I'm here to get you out.
- They arrested us for no reason.
- I know,
but it's over now.
All this silliness.
Silliness?
They hit alice in the head with a nightstick.
We're going to forget about that now.
Move forward.
Get married.
Just like we talked about.
I don't want to get married.
I'm sorry,lawrence.
I want more for my life.
I tried,sir.
are you really willing to give up everything for this so-called cause?
Think before you answer,my dear,
because this could be the most important decision of your life.
What are you saying?
You've never been poor,
never been treated like a second-class citizen,but I have.
I have,too,father,every time you dismiss me as though I were
your little stupid filly.
every time you dismiss me as though I were your little stupid filly.
I'm warning you,frances.
Your beliefs won't keep you warm at night,or put food in your stomach.
- Are you threatening to disown me?
- Unless you change your mind.
Forswear those corrupting women,
right here,right now.
I can'T.
I'm sorry,father.
So be it.
You're dead to me.
- And to your mother.
- Mother knows I'm here?
Your friend,philippa,told us everything.
Phil?
I don't believe it.
How do you think we knew about the meeting?
That can't be.
It's easy to have ideals when you're rich,frances.
Not so easy when you're poor.
As you're about to find out.
Father,wait!
well,rubber meets the road.
- Frances couldn't hack it.
- Yeah.
Mr.Smith,aka ambrose stone,
bailed frances out of jail that night.
All right.Couldn't have been easy going back home to the best friend who betrayed you.
Yeah.If I were frances,I'd have come down hard on phil.
Yeah,
and maybe phil fought back.
Hate to tell you this,audrey,
but looks like your mother,phil,
betrayed her best buddy.
Sold her down the river.
my mother loved frances.
She was the benedict arnold of the suffragettes.
Oh.
My mother was a good woman.
There's a reason
she didn't go to that second meeting at alice harris'S.
Because she tipped off the police.
It was all my fault.
you were seven years old.
You don't know what it was like for mothers back then.
Once a woman had a child,
she was helpless.
Helpless how?
I...
I promised her I'd never say.
But...
she had no choice.
- No choice about what,audrey?
- The times she lived in.
Well,m*rder's the same now as it was back then.
Yes,but being a woman was entirely different.
- how could you?
- Go away,frances.
- You tell me why first.
- You wouldn't understand.
Did my father pay you,is that it?
You think I would betray you for money?
Your husband b*at you again.
I've been beaten before,and I'll get beaten again.
Then why?
For audrey.
He hurt her?
He said he'd divorce me,take me to court,
have me judged by a jury of his peers.
Because juries are all men.
And once they heard I was a suffragette
they'd take her away from me.
Never let me seemy own daughter again.
What can I do?
What choice did I have?
I betrayed us,too,phil,
and for a lot less.
For safety,
for my gilded cage.
It's a nice cage,frances.
No one can blame you for wanting to stay in it.
Alice said,"we're only as strong as our greatest fear.
" Mine is losing audrey.
I thought mine was being disowned,but it's not.
It's being a coward.
What are you going to do?
I'm going to go back to that jail,fight to get alice and the others out.
And get re-arrested?
I'd rather be in a cage with bars
than be here and hate myself.
- I'll go with you.
- No,no.
Audrey needs you more than we do.
be careful.
I'm through being careful.
my mother did what she had to do for me,
and frances did what she had to do
for all of us.
But someone stopped her before she had the chance.
Someone in that house,
listening to sophie tucker.
The police report said no one was home but the servants.
- But there was music playing?
- Sophie tucker,elizabeth's favorite.
There was only one gramophone.
That one,elizabeth'S.
Grammy stone said after frances d*ed,
elizabeth became a recluse,shut herself up in her room.
With her needlepoint...
and books.
Hmm,there's a record here.
"The market street recording studio.
" Looks like elizabeth made a recording.
August , .
August ?
Does the date mean something?
That's the date the th amendment was ratified,gave women the right to vote.
Odd day to make a recording,especially since elizabeth was against the whole thing.
How happy you would have been to know that
he day you dreamed of has finally arrived,my dear.
I'm making this record
so that I can play it alone
over and over again.
- And where do you think you're going at this hour?
- Out,mother.
Not if I have anything to say about it.
I'm through being told what to do by you.
Or anyone else for that matter.
Except that coven of riffraff.
- Why do they frighten you so much,mother?
- They don't frighten me.
Then come with me.
See for yourself what they are really like.
Don't be absurd.
Absurd is thinking women are just domestic angels.
Absurd is thinking we need men to decide how we should live.
Why can't you accept that I'm happy the way I am,
and you can be,too?
Because you're not happy,mother.
You're just too scared to admit it.
I am a wife and a mother.
What more can a woman ask for?
Her freedom.
Don't you want that?
What you want will never happen.
Can't you see I am trying to save you from disappointment?
You're the one who's disappointed,mother,
In the bill of goods you bought hook,line and sinker.
I'm a realist,frances.
Hoping for a future that will never happen
is simply too painful.
So you do want more?
I am happy with what I have.
I'm sorry,mother,but this cage simply isn't big enough for me.
- It's not a cage.
- Yes,it is,you just can't see it.
How dare you.
My life is not a lie.
- Let me go,mother.
- No.
I'm happy,damn it,happy!