Into the rarefied atmosphere of the Hotel du Lac timidly walks Edith Hope romantic novelist & holder of modest dreams. Edith has been exiled from home after embarrassing herself & her friends. She has refused to sacrifice her ideals & remains stubbornly single. But among the pampered women & minor nobility Edith finds Mr Neville & her chance to escape from a life of humiliating spinsterhood is renewed... This book is the winner of the Booker Prize in 1984.