David Rivers is a zealous, pure-of-heart missionary who is back in England to recover his health. He is tending a small country church for six weeks before he goes back to the mission field. One evening he is preaching when in walks a lady who is obviously not a country farm wife. David finally meets her when she invites him for Christmas dinner. Diana Rivers (no relation) has a problem – she is wealthy, but only for another month. Her uncle has left her all his money on the condition that she marry within the year. The year is almost up, but she has a very jaded view of marriage and had planned never to marry. David feels that marriage is incompatible with his missionary life, since the climate has proved deadly to so many people. David’s been told that if he goes back to Africa he is likely to live another two years before the climate kills him. Diana explains her situation and offers David a deal: marry her on the day he leaves for Africa and she will contribute a large sum to his mission. At first David absolutely refuses because of his beliefs about marriage. After “sleeping on it” (staying up all night thinking and praying) he agrees for reasons that he does not divulge to Diana. David and Diana spend time together during the two weeks before they wed, and start to fall in love with each other. However, both are strict with their personal codes and do not share this information with the other. During the almost two years that David is gone they write, and slowly, Diana begins to change. Among other things she opens her house to the children of missionaries for school breaks. Then David writes and tells her that he is dying, and. . . you’ll have to read it to find out.

The plot of this books sounds completely shallow and like something you’ve read a hundred times before, and yet – Barclay is very skilled in putting together her characters. Both David and Diana have depth, a personal code of ethics, an awareness of who they are. The plot also sounds like something that could fall into sappy sentimentality – and yet it doesn’t.

David is a minister and Barclay was the wife of a minister. The book has a very liberal amount of Bible quotations, both direct and indirect, as well as many other church-type references. I see a lot of what is probably her life experience and her opinions is this book. The descriptions of the dynamics of the small country church are quite amusing. Barclay also, through the voice of David, observes that many missionaries put their zeal into their missions and don’t raise their own children, sending them to boarding school in England from a very young age. David feels that if a couple has children they need to raise their own children. (One of my friends in real life, who as the daughter of missionaries was sent to boarding school, feels the same way, so this observation has a very authentic feel to me.)

If you have a dislike of Christianity, you probably won’t like this book. If you don’t have a Christian background the various Bible references and church references may not make much sense to you, or engage you very much.

I loved this book. ( )