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Dandy Gilver and family had made the arduous journey to Wester Ross, but Dandy had mixed feelings even when they arrived. They were there to meet the family of Mallory, her son Donald's fiancee. It wasn't that Dandy thought Donald to be rather ''young'' at twenty -three to be contemplating matrimony, but that Mallory was rather ''old'' for him at thirty. There was also a niggling worry because Donald wasn't the sharpest pin in the cushion. All the doubts had faded into insignificance though when they arrived at Applecross: they might have come to celebrate the fiftieth birthday of Lady Lavinia, Mallory's mother, but it soon became obvious that Donald was smitten by the mother rather than the daughter. Dandy and Hugh were considering whether or not they should try to put an end to the engagement when the news arrived that Lady Lavinia had been found dead.

It's a perfect capture of a way of life in the thirties: the 'war' is not quite as fresh in the memory as it was and the next one merely a cloud on the horizon. It was a time when Donald's estate could 'abut' Dandy and Hugh's estate, when adult children still deferred to their parents and ladies' maids were commonplace. Catriona McPherson delivers the picture effortlessly. I wasn't even unduly bothered when the fathers of two adult children with a combined age of fifty -three discussed the settlement which Lord Ross would make on Mallory's marriage.