''Fiction taught her all she knew of life, taught her to interpret the lives of others.''

Dorothea May has had a reclusive life, particularly since the death of her husband Henry some fifteen years ago. Genteel, faint-hearted and solitary, her closest relatives are Henry's cousin, the imperious Kitty, and her husband Austin.

When Kitty's granddaughter comes to London to marry, Dorothea is bullied into providing a room for Steve, the best man, thus plunging her into a world of youth that she finds both puzzling and transforming.