The Salome Ensemble probes the entangled lives, works, and passions of a political activist, a novelist, a screenwriter, and a movie actress who collaborated in 1920s New York City. Together they created the shape-shifting, genre-crossing Salome of the Tenements, first a popular novel and then a Hollywood movie. The title character was a combination Cinderella and Salome like the women who conceived her. Rose Pastor Stokes was the role model. Anzia Yezierska wrote the novel. Sonya Levien wrote the screenplay. Jetta Goudal played her on the silver screen. Ginsberg considers the women individually and collectively, exploring how they shaped and reflected their cultural landscape. These European Jewish immigrants pursued their own versions of the American dream, escaped the squalor of sweatshops, knew romance and heartache, and achieved prominence in politics, fashion, journalism, literature, and film.

The Salome Ensemble probes the entangled lives, works, and passions of a political activist, a novelist, a screenwriter, and a movie actress who collaborated in 1920s New York City. Together they created the shape-shifting, genre-crossing Salome of the Tenements, first a popular novel and then a Hollywood movie. The title character was a combination Cinderella and Salome like the women who conceived her. Rose Pastor Stokes was the role model. Anzia Yezierska wrote the novel. Sonya Levien wrote the screenplay. Jetta Goudal played her on the silver screen. Ginsberg considers the women individually and collectively, exploring how they shaped and reflected their cultural landscape. These European Jewish immigrants pursued their own versions of the American dream, escaped the squalor of sweatshops, knew romance and heartache, and achieved prominence in politics, fashion, journalism, literature, and film.

"Throughout history, men have dominated women. This is not because men are more intelligent; not because of their superior sense of logic; and not because of their more highly developed inventive capabilities. It is solely due to their greater physical strength."
- Bertrand Russell (Lord Russell). One of the world's greatest philosophers and libertarians.

The basic theme is one of female retribution against extreme male cruelty.
There are three individual stories - chapters 1, 2 and 4. Whilst unrelated, and quite different in all aspects, they each have the same underlying theme, and involve a great deal of suffering on the part of the various women involved.
The victims in the three stories come together - coincidentally - by virtue of their individual memberships in the same health and beauty club: "The Aphrodite Health and Beauty Centre."
They get to know one another quite well, and quite soon their extremely unpleasant experiences at the hands of their respective male wrongdoers come to light. They soon discover a common denominator in their experiences: that the men/youths concerned had all escaped any sort of punishment under the law or otherwise, for their extremely violent behaviour. So they decide, in view of this unacceptable state of affairs, to join forces to exact an appropriate form of retribution; this retribution will relate precisely to the nature of the acts of violence. In other words, a role-reversal form of punishment.
When one of the group of friends unexpectedly inherits a vast fortune from a distant deceased relative and pledges it to their cause, all material restrictions are thereby lifted, and they proceed to create a very elaborateplan of revenge, (Ch. 6-9).
They start by purchasing a castle in a remote part of the Scottish Highlands. Extensive alterations are subsequently undertaken and half a dozen specially chosen dogs are purchased: Rhodesian Ridgebacks. (These are a little known breed, and well known in parts of Africa - as their name implies - for handling large tropical animals: lions, tigers, bullocks etc - and for their reliable and rapid responses to trained commands.)
In turn, the male evildoers are invited to the (modified) castle with un-refusable offers of a free, all-inclusive, 5-star holiday together with the sure-fire appetizer of constant and personal attention from a variety of beautiful and willing young ladies.
The punishment they receive is elaborate, very unconventional and at times very violent. They are unable to escape the inevitable.
Note: My former profession of Medical Research Scientist, with an interest in forensic pathology, especially that relating to past infamous mass murderers, helped me in no small way to devise the various punishment scenarios.