Three sisters have decided to kill themselves on the very last day of the 20th century. The Alter sisters-- Lady, Vee, and Delph-- are witty, complex women who share their family's apartment on Manhattan's Upper West Side. But bad luck is in their genes, passed down through the generations. As the world counts down to the dawn of a new millennium, they weave a mesmerizing account of their lives that stretches back decades to their great-grandfather, a brilliant scientist whose professional triumph became the sinister legacy that defines them.