The old Congregational church the Pentlands long favored has disbanded as more and more WASPs have left Durham, replaced by immigrant Roman Catholics with different religious customs.

For the past two or three decades, Pentland's wife Agnes has been insane, and she now lives in an upstairs room in a far wing of the house.

His attention to the widowed Mrs. Soames is unseemly (so Aunt Cassie says), but no one can criticize him openly because John is the patriarch of the family.

Aunt Cassie and Miss Peavey repeatedly criticize Sabine for being a flapper and for the scandal she brought on the family.

Also visiting Durham that fall is Jean, the son of a Frenchman who married an American woman and whom Sybil met in Paris.

Also newly arrived in Durham is Michael O'Hara, an Irish immigrant who has achieved wealth and political prominence in Boston.

Anson Pentland refuses to give Olivia a divorce for fear it will ruin his career and the family's good name.

The night Jack dies, Olivia runs into a momentarily lucid Mrs. Pentland, who tells her that there is a secret in the attic that could destroy and free the family.

Olivia learns that John Pentland loves Mrs. Soames (whether he has consummated his affair with her is unclear), and he has not divorced his insane wife out of duty.

His daily visits with his wife are not performed out of love (as everyone assumes) but out of a desire to divert attention from his affair with Mrs. Soames.

Olivia rejects Michael O'Hara's love, realizing that she is the only person strong enough to hold the Pentland family together through the coming years of immense change.