Betsy Canning is dissatisfied with life. She has always taken pains to be healthy, popular and well-treated, but despite her wealth, her comfortable homes and beautiful children, happiness eludes her. The problem must lie, she thinks, in her marriage to Alec, and a neat, civilised divorce seems the perfect solution.

But talk of divorce sparks interference from family and friends, and soon public opinion tears into the fragile fabric of family life and private desire. Alec and Betsy's marriage will not be the only casualty, and in this newly complicated world, happiness is more elusive than ever.

Margaret Kennedy was born in London on 23 April 1896, the eldest of four children. She attended Cheltenham Ladies College, then went on to study history at Somerville College, Oxford. Her first book, a commissioned work of history, was published in 1922 and was soon followed by her first work of fiction,The Ladies of Lyndon(1923). Her second novel,The Constant Nymph(1924), became a worldwide bestseller, and with it Kennedy became a well-known and highly praised writer. The following year she married David Davies, a barrister; they lived in London and had three children. Kennedy went on to write fifteen further novels, many of which were critically commended Troy Chimneys(1953) was awarded the James Tait Black Memorial Prize. She also wrote plays, adapting bothThe Constant Nymphand its sequelThe Fool of the Familyvery successfully. The former opened in the West End in 1926, starring Noel Coward followed by John Gielgud, to great acclaim. Three different film versions ofThe Constant Nymph, featuring stars of the time such as Ivor Novello and Joan Fontaine, were equally popular, and led to Kennedys engagement in film work for a number of years from the late 1930s. She also published a study of Jane Austen (1950) and a work of literary criticism,The Outlaws on Parnassus, in 1958. In 1964 Margaret Kennedy moved from London to Woodstock, Oxfordshire, where she lived until her death on 31 July 1967.

A comfortable marriage is pulled apart by vague dissatisfaction, romantic fancies, gossip and petty argument - a masterfully told modern tragedy by the author of The Constant Nymph>