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The story in 11 parts

1. Key idea 1 · free to read

   A coffee under the willow starts everything

   The story opens at Villa Floriano, beside the narrow river Aco. Old Marietta, the housekeeper, asks if the Signorino would like coffee in the garden. Peter sits at a rustic table and admires the vineyards, white villas and snowy peaks.

   Then a woman speaks in English from the other bank. She is tall, dressed in white, with hair that sparkles like threads of glass. Peter's heart jumps, stops and races. His wits scatter, so an automatic second self answers for him and calls the scenery only Nature, unaided. She teases him with polite eyebrows, names him Mr. Marchdale and says she is his landlady.

   The narrator lets us see what Peter hides. He saw this woman before at the theater in Paris and has carried her image for years. A chance meeting can make a quiet man bold, and it can also make him very silly.

2. 2

   Marietta knows everything and explains nothing

   Marietta is the comic heart of the book, a small brown woman with sharp black eyes who takes Peter's playful questions literally.

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3. 3

   Sparrows, finches and a rescued little pig

   The first real talk between Peter and the Duchessa happens over breadcrumbs.

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4. 4

   A novel nobody reads and two children on the road

   Peter writes novels under the name Felix Wildmay, and no one reads them.

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5. 5

   The Cardinal arrives with a plan and the rain

   The Duchessa learns that Peter is a respectable Norfolk man who writes novels under a pseudonym.

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6. 6

   The story of Pauline, told with the names changed

   Peter crosses the bridge and stands in the grounds of Ventirose for the first time.

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7. 7

   A dinner, a bold Irishwoman and a cold reception

   The Thursday dinner at Ventirose brings the Cardinal, a chaplain, an old French lady and a lively Irishwoman, Mrs. O'Donovan Florence.

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8. 8

   Marietta falls ill and the Cardinal gives a lesson

   For some days Peter sulks.

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9. 9

   Wit as a mask for feeling

   One theme is how people hide behind talk.

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10. 10

    Faith, rank and the quiet work of kindness

    The second theme is how differences of faith and rank meet real goodness.

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11. 11

    How the story is told and what recurs

    Harland tells the story in short chapters and lets a chatty narrator intrude.

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