The quiet life of schoolmaster Bill Mor and his wife Nan is disturbed when a young woman, Rain Carter, arrives at the school to paint the portrait of the Headmaster. Mor, hoping to enter politics, becomes aware of new desires. A complex battle develops, involving love, guilt, magic, art and political ambition. Mor's teenage children and their mother fight discreetly and ruthlessly against the invader. The head, himself enchanted, advises Mor to seize the girl and run. The final decision rests with Rain. Can a great love be purchased at too high a price? Iris Murdoch is incapable of writing without fascinating and beautiful colour The Times Of the novelists who have made their bow since the war she seems to me to be the most remarkable Raymond Mortimer