Summary
Summary of That Which Hath Wings: A Novel of the Day
Key ideas
Key idea 1
Marriage brings a fear into view
Franky, Viscount Norwater, marries Margot Mountjohn in January 1914. By June, she learns that she is expecting a child, and her fashionable world offers little comfort. She had trusted her friends' good luck charms to prevent motherhood. Now she tells Franky that her own mother died giving birth to her.
Franky longs for a son who will keep his scoundrel uncle from inheriting the title. Yet love makes him gentle with Margot, placing private tenderness beside the approaching public storm.
Key idea 2
A flight test reveals a connection
In the Bois de Boulogne, Franky and Margot are allowed to watch a test of the Bird of War, an English monoplane with a gyroscopic hovering device.
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Key idea 3
A dinner boast carries a warning
At Sir Thomas Brayham's Paris dinner, Count von Herrnung treats hatred of England as something to display proudly.
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Key idea 4
Patrine meets danger and another possibility
Patrine Saxham works as Lady Beauvayse's secretary when von Herrnung begins pursuing and mocking her.
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Key idea 5
Bawne takes his promise seriously
Dr. Owen Saxham fears that his own faults may pass to his son Bawne.
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Key idea 6
Love grows beside an unspoken fear
Bawne is carried into Germany while Lynette and Owen endure nights of dread at home.
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Key idea 7
Kindness makes concealment harder to bear
After Bawne disappears, Patrine accepts a home with her uncle.
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Key idea 8
Private fears meet the public storm
Across one summer and the first year of the Great War, these lives bring personal fears into contact with public danger.
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About 12 h 50 min to read.Who it’s for
You will enjoy this book if you love stories set on the eve of the First World War, with Society dinners, early aeroplanes, spies, and a heroine who learns to believe in something greater than herself.
What this book is
A bride in Paris learns she is going to have a baby, and weeps as if the world had ended. That same day, the city holds a hovering aeroplane, a priest who explains a painting and a German count who boasts of the Day when Britain will fall. Why would one novel put all of this on a single summer afternoon?
That Which Hath Wings was written by Richard Dehan and follows events from 1914 into the following spring. It begins as a comedy of Society manners and grows into a story of war, faith and love. Its heart is Patrine Saxham, a bold young woman who has never been taught what to value. Birds, wings and flight run through the whole book.
In this summary
- 1A bride who fears the cradleFree
- 2A lunch that puts a title at risk
- 3A hovering plane over the Bois
- 4An old priest and a painting of Rachel
- 5A dinner where a German boasts
- 6Patrine Saxham chooses the wrong hero
- 7A surgeon, his wife and their boy
- 8A bird that flies with a stolen secret
- 9A nation at war and a girl in motion
- 10How wings, mothers and prayer hold the story
Key point 1 of 10
A bride who fears the cradle
In January 1914, Francis Sherbrand, Viscount Norwater, marries Margot Mountjohn, a rich orphan everyone calls Kittums. Franky is a young Guards subaltern. It is a true love match, though neither knows the other well.
Margot talks like a woman of the world and knows almost nothing of life. Before the wedding, her married friends press little charms on her to keep babies away, and she believes in every one. The memory of her mother frightens her.
In Paris in June, Margot learns that she is going to have a child. She weeps and rages. Franky laughs at her mascots, which only makes matters worse.
Over lunch at Nadier's, he blurts out the word cradle, and the quarrel begins again. At last her fear comes out. She married him knowing nothing and was too ashamed to say so. Franky suddenly sees her whole upbringing, with hired tutors and an aunt who gave little care. Fear and ignorance, not lack of love, stand between these two.
That’s 1 of 10 key points.
The rest of the summary, written and spoken, and the whole book: free to start.
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Check yourself
Why does Margot fear having a child?
Right. “She answers that her mother died at her birth, and that she married knowing nothing.”Not quite. “She answers that her mother died at her birth, and that she married knowing nothing.”
Why does Bawne agree to fly with von Herrnung?
Right. “His duty is to stay close to the man and the satchel.”Not quite. “His duty is to stay close to the man and the satchel.”
What troubles Patrine about accepting Alan's love?
Right. “Can she accept his love while keeping him ignorant of her past?”Not quite. “Can she accept his love while keeping him ignorant of her past?”
Go deeper: the whole of That Which Hath Wings: A Novel of the Day
About 12 h 50 min to read.Questions about That Which Hath Wings: A Novel of the Day
What is That Which Hath Wings about?
It follows English Society from the eve of war, beginning with a frightened young bride and reaching wartime Flanders the following spring. It joins a love story, a spy plot about stolen plans and a young woman's growth in faith.
Who is Patrine Saxham?
Patrine is the tall, bold niece of the surgeon Dr Saxham. She begins as a fashionable girl who plays with danger, then learns to love, to pray and to serve others as the war advances.
What does the title That Which Hath Wings mean?
It draws on a biblical passage placed at the beginning of the novel, in which birds convey spoken words and winged creatures reveal what has happened. Flight and wings recur throughout.
Is That Which Hath Wings a true story?
It is a novel, though it uses real events of 1914 such as the Sarajevo assassination, the declaration of war and the retreat from Mons as its background. The people and plot are invented.
What is the main message of the book?
The book argues that love, faith and sacrifice matter more than pleasure, and that suffering can lead people to a better life. It is also strongly patriotic, in the manner of its period.
Cite this edition
Dehan, Richard. That Which Hath Wings: A Novel of the Day. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/that-which-hath-wings-a-novel-of-the-day.
Dehan, R. (2026). That which hath wings: A novel of the day. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/that-which-hath-wings-a-novel-of-the-day (Original work published 1918)
Dehan, Richard. That Which Hath Wings: A Novel of the Day. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/that-which-hath-wings-a-novel-of-the-day.
@book{dehan2026that,
author = {Dehan, Richard},
title = {That Which Hath Wings: A Novel of the Day},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/that-which-hath-wings-a-novel-of-the-day},
note = {First published 1918}
}
