Beatrice Nash, reeling from her father's death but fiercely determined to make her own way, accepts a teaching position in the small British coastal town of Rye in 1914. A newcomer to the insular East Sussex village, Beatrice does her best to steer clear of snobbish rivalries and gossip-inducing scandals, but her irrepressible intelligence and her growing affection for the townspeople (in particular a handsome young surgeon) leave her more entrenched in the town's social fabric than she'd like to admit. Alas, the impending war looms, threatening to upend the small community and put petty grievances into stark perspective. Sparkling with sharp humor and incisive wit, Helen Simonson's captivating novel is an enchanting portrait of an idyllic small town as well as a sensitive rumination on the manifold devastations of war.