The Sisterhood of Night

'The Sisterhood Of Night', adapted from the short story by Steven Millhauser, is the story of young girls in a small town who have formed a secret society, bound by a vow of silence and holding meetings in the dead of night. The association is questioned when thirteen-year-old Emily Gehring is initiated into the sisterhood and then sends a letter of confession to the local paper, outing the members of the society as a band of sexual deviants bent on corrupting the town's daughters. The confession ignites controversy and the leader of the girls, Mary Warren, appears on television to refute Emily Gehring's claims, defending the sisterhood as a 'pure and noble association devoted to silence.' Things go truly awry when society member Lavinia Hall, a fragile, studious girl, commits suicide. As a result of this death, Emily Gehring retracts her confession, claiming she lied. These ambiguities leave the adults of the town in a quandary, leading them to fiercely debate what it is that the girls are doing in the middle of the night--what it is that exacts such loyalty from their daughters. It is a story about the elusive privacy of young girls, and how we deal with the unknown.