Summary

The novel begins in the year 1880, where we find ex-soldier Colonel Abel Partiger amongst his friends in a London social club. Leaving the club to return home to his dying wife (Rose Partiger, also the name of one of his seven children), he goes there via a working-class area of London where he is having an affair with a younger woman named Mira.

As it begins to rain outside, the scene moves across London to Abercorn Terrace, the family home, just as the Colonel arrives home. He is greeted by his children: Eleanor, Milly, Martin, Morris, Delia, and Rose (another son, Edward, is away at university); we are not told their precise ages, only that Eleanor, the oldest child, is 22. The other children range from pre-teen to college age. The Colonel treats his children gruffly, and though he is fond of them he is...