title: The Playgroup
author: Spencer, Nelsie
description: Before she signed up for the mommy role, Ellie Fuller was a stand-up comic, a good best friend, and on her way to substantial success in the TV world. Then good-looking Peter came along, and she was quick to succumb. Marriage redefined her personal landscape with a vengeance, and with what now seems like super speed, she's become a constantly nursing, sleep-deprived, double-stroller pushing mother of two on Manhattan's Upper West Side. Ellie loves her life. Doesn't she? She's about to find out. Day One of pre-school for her daughter, Ahnika. As Ellie gathers with the other moms on the stately steps of Park Avenue Playgroup, she meets ice princess Missy Hanover. Missy is tall. Missy is tan. Missy is the kind of woman who looks gorgeous even in running clothes. And, to Ellie's surprise, Missy looks vaguely familiar. They must have met before. But where? Missy decides that she and Ellie should be friends-close friends. As the school year progresses, Ellie finds herself pulled deeper, sometimes unwillingly, into Missy's Upper East Side world. From the rarefied, moneyed land of Hermes scarves and elaborate birthday parties for three year-olds, into the hidden reaches of a married woman's mind and the secrets of Ellie's past, The Playgroup shows what really goes on when the kids are in school.