It won the James Tait Black Memorial Prize for that year, and has been regularly reprinted ever since.

It describes the fortunes of Meg Eliot, a happy and active woman, the wife of a barrister, who finds herself a widow in reduced circumstances after the shocking murder of her husband abroad.

Her attempts to rebuild her life are placed in contrast with the self-isolation of her brother, David, who lives with his dying partner Gordon at a commercial nursery in Sussex.

Wilson conceived the idea for the story in September 1957, while visiting Thailand, which is possibly the model for the fictional country of Badai.

This article about a novel of the 1950s with a lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, or queer theme is a stub.