From the publisher’s description:
When a woman returns to her Midwestern hometown as an artist-in-residence to teach puppetry to schoolchildren, her homecoming also means grappling with artistic ambition, memories of rejected love, and shocking truths about her family.
Dove, Rita (NHC Fellow, 1988–89). Through the Ivory Gate: A Novel. New York: Pantheon Books, 1992. ISBN 9780679416043.