On a stormy night in small-town America, a couple, desperate and soaked to the skin, knock on a stranger's door When Martha, a retired schoolteacher living a safe and conventional life, answers their knock, her world changes forever For they are fugitives Lynnie, a young woman with an intellectual disability, and Homan, a deaf man with only sign language to guide him, have escaped together from The School for the Incurable and Feebleminded, a brutal institution where people with disabilities are left to languish, shuttered away from the world In a moment of despair, they reveal that Lynnie has a newborn baby But, moments later, the police bang on the door Homan escapes into the darkness, Lynnie is captured But just before she is returned to The School, bound and tied, she utters two words to Martha- Hide her And so begins the unforget le story of Lynnie, Homan, Martha, and baby Julia - lives divided by seemingly insurmoun le obstacles, yet drawn together by a secret pact and extraordinary love Devastatingly powerful and richly compelling, The Story of Beautiful Girl is a mesmerising novel which will captivate readers everywhere.