This novel tell of Monica Crawshaw relationship with two men - with the sensual, selfish Hamish McPhail who brutally betrays her, and with Victor Towers, a young man of gentle disposition with whom she discovers love of a strength and depth she has never known before. But driven by distress, Monica commits a grave wrong against Victor. She practices upon him, and finally upon his parents, a tragic deception which has repercussions for many years to come, and which, despite her attempts to justify it to herself, weighs heavily upon her conscience.