Chicago, 1893. The World’s Columbian Exposition is rising from the frozen mud of Jackson Park, a gleaming “White City” meant to showcase American exceptionalism to the globe. Eleanor Vance, a brilliant but unrecognized draftswoman, works in the shadows of the male-dominated architectural offices. Weeks before Opening Day, she uncovers a catastrophic mathematical discrepancy: the massive iron-and-glass roof of the Palace of Progress is structurally unsound and will collapse under the weight of the crowds. When her warnings are dismissed by her superiors, Eleanor realizes it isn’t an accident—it’s deliberate sabotage by a corrupt contractor skimming funds. Teaming up with a disillusioned structural engineer, Julian Wright, Eleanor must navigate the dangerous, glittering underbelly of Gilded Age Chicago to expose the truth before the dream of the White City becomes a monumental graveyard.
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