Set in the late 1960s and 1970s, The Dark-Eyed Girls tells the story of three friends, Liv, Katherine and Rachel, and their changing relationships over the years. Liv, the book's central character, is romantic and looking for love. Katherine is envious of others' good fortune, hungry for experience and determined to avoid the domesticity that has, in her eyes, enslaved her mother. Only Rachel, the beautiful only child of wealthy parents, seems to want for nothing. Then a terrible tragedy occurs, and the girls' friendship is altered forever...