This is the story of Lilian Eliot, whom we first encounter as a teen-ager in 1917 Boston. We follow her through a tormenting wartime romance and a difficult marriage into a hard-earned kind of peace. There are echoes in this novel, of great romance of the past, and great authors such as Henry James and Jane Austen. It is not foolish-ness that Minot writes about but the growth of wisdom.