Marcia Faversham, having with relief despatched her husband John on a four-month fishing trip, is looking forward to the peace and tranquillity of the house without him. But not only does she have her young family – Hugo, a sturdy, golden child, slightly ashamed of his younger brother Tim, struggling to keep up in a surgical boot and irons after polio, and Moyna, gentle and kind but adoring Hugo – but there’s Miss Mitcham causing difficulties. 
   Miss Mitcham, small and sharp, is a power to be feared in Leadon Hill, watching, watching, from behind the lace curtains of the drawing-room of Ivy Cottage, and dissecting reputations at her select little tea parties. Marcia suffers from their gossiping tongues, but now they have a new victim, for ‘The Chestnuts’ has at last been let, to Miss West, young, single – and from Italy.