"Argetsinger...is a true pageant enthusiast; she brings empathy and respect to the women who have followed this path." -- The Washington Post A Washington Post Style editor's fascinating and irresistible look back on the Miss America pageant as it approaches its 100th anniversary. The sash. The tears. The glittering crown. And of course, that soaring song. For all of its pomp and kitsch, the Miss America pageant is indelibly written into the American...

It is nearly midnight when the enormous bell in the belfry of All Faith Chapel -- silent for decades -- peals, startling awake the entire town of Eastport. Upon inspection of the steeple, the police uncover the body of local teenager Karen Hansen, who had climbed the belfry's dark, rickety stairs for a midnight rendezvous. But instead of an exciting new life, Karen met her death. Meanwhile, as an epic nor'easter bears down on the idyllic island town,...