Reed Amhearst, Kate Fansler's husband, takes no part in this novel, leaving Kate free to re-establish contact with "Moon" Mandelbaum, Janet's former husband, whom Kate had known, along with Janet, in graduate school. Kate's ability to maintain warm, mutually-respectful friendships with men is one of her most engaging characteristics. Professor Clarkville, one of Janet Mandelbaum's English Department colleagues, is the stereotype of the pompous, chauvinistic academic, whereas Moon, a visiting professor from the Midwest, is a more complex person, sincerely concerned about Janet's plight. Joan and Suellen, the novel's representatives of the Cambridge women's community, are stereotypically if sympathetically drawn, as is Kate's niece Leighton, a Harvard senior who embodies a combination of youthful cynicism and idealism.