[1] The novel is set in England, France and the USA, in the period immediately following World War I.

The story is told by Nigel Barraclough about Merlin Giltinane and her father and brother from Australia.

It is a shallow tale of unreal people, built shakily and ornately on a slight situation, and told in an irritatingly affected style.

But he-and she-will be disappointed, for the style has become too affectedly nonchalant, and the ideas are too few to hold the narrative together.

At times the old wit bubbles up, but there is post-war weariness in many of the witticisms, and though the character delineation is admirable the whole book has a sketchiness which prevents the reader settling down to it.