Rosemary Sutcliff describes how her immobility as a child suffering from a rare form of arthritis developed her powers of observation and her ability to enter into a life of the landscape and the people about her. The reader enters her childhood world with the father who adored her and the mother who could never provide her with the unconditional love she desired. Rosemary describes her experiences during the war and her following intense love affair that, once ended, left her with an enormous amount of pain, which was somehow pivotal to her developing writing career.