It repeats themes explored in Heath's previous work: the opposition of town and country, the present versus the recent past, the predicament of the wife and husband isolated in marriage, and the need that all her characters share for dreams that can be accepted as firm realities. ... her gift for social satire is evident in her acute eye and ear for the pretensions and the achievements of the professional middle class ... she succeeds in objectifying her central theme of the insecurity of the inner self facing up to external danger. ... Minor characters are drawn with sure, exact strokes that give depth to the narrative. A vivid comic sensibility is evident throughout. ... The didactic themes animating this major novel exist simultaneously with and are indivisible from its broad acute comedy, its tenderness, and its skillful construction.