Tam Francis

The Girl in the Jitterbug Dress Tam Francis

The past doesn't always stay in the past. Sometimes it comes to life on the dance floor


Enter a world of nostalgic fashion, classic cocktails, and dance halls. 18-year-old June finds herself face to face with one of her deepest desires. Dance. She embarks on a path of discovery and relishes the vintage skirt wrapping around her warm thighs on the crowded dance floor. And the way her partner moves her to distraction by expertly shifting his leg between hers, delicately pushing her into intricately guided steps.


When an accomplished dancer is injured before the international jitterbug contest, June is tapped to take her place. June struggles to overcome her fears, win the contest, and not fall in love with her-otherwise engaged-dance partner.

Fifty years earlier, another 18-year-old jitterbug, Violet, leads the life June and her friends emulate. But Violet's life begins to unravel when she and her sailor beau find her grifting father passed out on her doorstep, blood oozing from his head.

They race against his deployment to tie the knot before the war can tear them apart. When his letters mysteriously stop arriving, Violet is forced to make the decision of a lifetime alone.

Half a century later, while practicing for the contest, June finds an antique dress which may lead her to the one person she's been looking for, her biological grandmother, and the key to unlocking a fifty year-old mystery.

THE GIRL IN THE JITTERBUG DRESS is the parallel story of two young women struggling with love, loss, and redemption, united across generations by a 1940's swing dress.