Wrestling with Alligators: All that Maddy Hawkins has ever wanted was a family she could call her own. Even in 1959, the simplest things are difficult to find...Maddy, a street-wise teenage runaway, believes she has created this family with the women who live with her in an East Coast woman-only rooming house: Lulu, an eccentric silent-screen star; Claire, a beautiful, widowed French war bride; and Mary, a young artist.But as Maddy watches her newfound family fall apart, she begins to realize that some things in life are worth fighting for, and that the bonds of true friendship are the strongest bonds of all.