Through the vibrant years of the early part of the century--from 1896 to 1919--lived the Whitmans, the Pritchards and the Dances, whose lives were destined to be interwined... These poor, proud, high-spirited people... people whose roots were in the farming country of southern England... in the bawdy and exuberant streets of the East End. Jonathan Whitman, his cousin Myra, sisters Anne Louise and Betsy Pritchard and the enormous Pritchard clan to which they belonged, saw the changing era and the incredible events of a passing age--an age of great poverty and great wealth, of the Boer War and social reform, of straw boaters, feather boas and the music hall. Throughout of years, ambicious Anne-Louise Pritchard, became a selfish vixen who lies, cheats, does whatever she must to get what she wants; but her sister, Betsy, plain and good, who may be the richer of the two after all; and Jonathan Whitman, with his books, his poignant first love, and his dream for the future. Around these three move others who affect their lives: big, lovable Maxie Dance, the natty fishmonger who walks out with Anne-Louise when she is working in London; Betsy's quietly loving husband, Math; Jonathan's strange sister, Emily. And finally the story of one woman's consuming love and of a jealous obsession that threatened to destroy the very man she adored...
