When Tracy, the American-reared granddaughter, returns to China Court on the day after old Mrs. Quin’s death, a chain of startling events is set in motion. In one sense this is Tracy’s story and the story of the red-haired neighbour, offshoot of a run-down titled family, which has taken over China Court’s farm. These two have shared in the grandmother’s love of the place, and to them its loss will mean the most. But in order to understand what it meant to them we must know the stories of those who came before, especially of Mrs. Quin herself, who came there as a scorned outsider, loved one man, but married his brother. These and a dozen other delightful relatives live out their daily lives in these pages.
