A day, crucial and cathartic, in the life of a young Catholic schoolteacher who has returned to Ireland after a year's sabbatical in London, where he married an American divorc e. As a result he now faces certain dismissal by the school authorities. The novel recreates the story of how the man and the woman broke the shackles of guilt and duty and came to accept a fulfilling adult love. 'A beautiful, irresistible work of imagination.' Sunday Telegraph