Nothing much happens in the book. It would be impossible to prepare an outline of the plot (as opposed, say, to?"The Making of Americans"). The action is purely interior: a great deal is noticed, digested, absorbed, compared. The result can be read simply as an account of being in the countryside, or more complexly, as an investigation into the interlocking nature of things and into the ways that language can be used for description.'"Lucy Church Amiably"?is finally, in Miss Stein's own words, "A Novel of Romantic beauty and nature and which Looks Like an Engraving."