Impulsive, idealistic, and restless, Emily Stanton finds herself with university behind her, on the theshold of life in 1920s Melbourne. When she is introduced to a Franco-Scottish engineer whose Paris home promises the exotic, she chooses against acadmia and leaves Australia to become a wife. But marriage and the prospect of motherhood soon fail to provide sufficient fulfilment and she embarks on a journey of self-questioning and intellectual reawakening that takes her as far as Tunisia, and towards a crossroads in her life. A mesmersing, rich story of dreams and obessions that explores the psyche of a woman torn between family and career. A thoughtful book of subtlety and grace.