Anna Rosen­thal’s grand­moth­er, Goldie, asks Anna to dri­ve her from New York to San Fran­cis­co to return a valu­able col­lec­tion of Japan­ese art to its for­mer own­er, who gave it to Goldie for safe­keep­ing dur­ing World War II. Anna can’t under­stand why her grand­moth­er kept it for six­ty years, but Goldie refus­es to explain. As The Secret of the Nightin­gale Palace sweeps from the present back to wartime San Fran­cis­co, how­ev­er, Goldie’s sto­ry begins to unfold. A poor and une­d­u­cat­ed Jew­ish girl from Mem­phis, Goldie arrives in San Fran­cis­co in 1940 with noth­ing but her deter­mi­na­tion and a great sense of style. She quick­ly finds a job as a sales­girl at the ele­gant Jew­ish-owned Feld’s Depart­ment Store, but being Jew­ish does not auto­mat­i­cal­ly mean accep­tance by oth­er Jews. In a time of con­stant social upheaval, Goldie faces intol­er­ance and big­otry, not only toward Jews but also toward Japan­ese-Amer­i­cans, whose suf­fer­ing forces her to rec­og­nize the trou­bles of the wider world and to con­front the com­pli­cat­ed urg­ings of her own heart.