Set in the fictional Irish seaside resort town of Castlebay, the novel follows the lives of several local families between the years 1950 and 1962.

[1] The primary three families act as a counterbalance to one another: the wealthy Powers, whose father is the local doctor and mother is a city girl from Dublin; the struggling O'Briens, who eke out a living from the eleven-week long summer season in their grocery-confectionery shop; and the charming but secretive Doyles, whose father runs the local photography concession.

[3]They return to Castlebay so David can begin assuming his father's practice, but Clare is desperately unhappy being relegated to a second-class position in the Power family and in the town.

Subplots revolve around Clare's teacher, whose brother Sean, a priest, has married and had children with a Japanese woman but is unable to obtain a laicization from Rome; Clare's brothers, who go to work in England and one of whom ends up in jail; and upper-class summer visitors from Dublin who become involved with the locals in intimate ways.

[1] Binchy explores the opportunities for women afforded by travel and migration,[1] as Clare and David find freedom in Dublin and Sean's Japanese wife enjoys raising her children in England.