Summary

The novel begins with Marianne remembering a summer festival she attended in her home village every year as a child. She now brings her daughter, Susannah, back to the village for the carnival called the Wakes. There is a fancy dress parade and fairground rides. Over time, the custom changed to center around bringing rushes, a kind of flowery plant, to decorate the graves of family members.

Marianne is hurt that her brother and father never return for the festival to remember their family members together. All of the gravestones have grown old and are covered with plants. She wonders what she would do if her mother came back, despite being told since she was eight years old that she would never return. Marianne imagines singing an old song for her mother to prove that she is her daughter.

When Susannah was four...