This volume completes the story of Hester and her struggle to find her way in the family she belongs to by birth but not by upbringing. The bank that her father once worked for is again threatened, and Hester’s response to her suitors is decided. – Summary by Anne Erickson     [chương_files]  

Elinor has decided to marry. But who is the man she has chosen? No one seems to know. Is he of good character? Does he have a “past”? Or even a wife? – Summary by LynneT     [chương_files]  

The location is the English Lake District and the characters very ordinary people. Mrs. Blencarrow is a widow with five children and control of her late husband’s small estate. She is eminently respectable and is involved with the usual round of tea and dinner parties as expected in a quiet town. She is unremarkable, apart from her disdain for scandal, or even gossip of any kind. Imagine the surprise when a stranger describes her as “a woman with a history”? That can only mean a disreputable past or even a scandal, but as she has lived in the community for 18 years, without a hint, what could it possibly be?     [chương_files]  

“The device on his shield was a young oak tree pulled up by the roots, with the Spanish word Desdichado, signifying Disinherited.” The novel opens with Mrs. Murray walking with two of her grandchildren along the banks of Loch Arroch in the Scottish border country. They appear to be well-to-do and distinguished, but all is not well within the family and sacrifices are necessary. – Summary by Lynne Thompson     [chương_files]  

“A house divided against itself cannot stand.” So said Abraham Lincoln in 1858. Here we have the irascible Mr. Waring, an elderly English ex-patriot, living in Italy with his charming daughter, Frances. Mr. Waring was there long before the hotels and the tourists, and resents them all, especially the gawkers, of which there were many… and most of them fellow Englishmen. We see that petite Frances is mistress of the house, and carries out her duties in the fashion of a true English lady, although this is more by accident than design, since she barely remembers the land of her birth, nor are there any English ladies to guide her. But, sweet as she seems, there is another side to her character, which makes itself known when an unexpected visitor arrives.( Lynne Thompson)     [chương_files]