This is a novel that speaks for the rich and

invaluable experience gained through every-

day living, for the many rewards and assets

accumulated along the way. It is an affirma-

tion of life in all its stages, despite all its

painful times.

Alice Gilman, a widow just past seventy, is

spending the summer alone in a cottage on an

island off the New England coast. Her son,

Philip, his wife, and their three young

daughters occupy a home just up the beach.

Another granddaughter, child of Alice s

daughter, visits for a few weeks with her

grandmother at the cottage. Later, Alice s

daughter and her family and Philip s two sons

of a previous marriage come to the island. It is

the first time that the entire family, ordinarily

separated by great distance, is together.

As Alice watches her family relate to one

another, form new attachments, renew old

relationships, sort out their current crises, she

reflects on her past with appreciation and

gratitude, reliving it with excitement through

the good and difficu It times, recalling her own

nloments of crisis to see exactly how her ex-

perience was survived and added a new di-

mension to her life. She considers the present,

observing her children and grandchildren

with intense interest, some concern, and

much joy; and she looks to her own future and

theirs with eager anticipation.