After the horrors of the First World War, which has destroyed so many families and altered forever the world in which they live, the Arndales of Northrop Hall must start again. The Hall itself has been turned into a rehabilitation home for returning soldiers, under the direction of Diana's tireless husband, James. Diana mourns the fact that their marriage is childless and that James seems more devoted to his work than he is to her, so when Sebastian, the love of her teenage years, reappears in her life, she cannot help wishing that fate had organized things differently.
Margaret Bacon was brought up in the Yorkshire Dales, and educated at The Mount School, York and at Oxford. She taught history before her marriage to a Civil Engineer whose profession entailed much travel and frequent moves of house. Her first book, 'Journey to Guyana', was an account of two years spent in South America. Her subsequent books, including one children's novel, have all been fiction. She has two daughters and is now settled in Wiltshire.