Charlotte Randall's first novel, which won the Reed Fiction Award in 1994. Set in Dunedin in 1970, the novel tells of an English widow who realises that the man she loves will never leave his wife for her. Her neighbour loves a glamorous woman who may not really want him. The daughters of these two people feel contempt for the tangle of their parents' relationships and in their cynicism behave promiscuously The temptations and dilemmas facing the various characters are presented.