Maurice Pervin, a world war veteran, has settled on a farm in the English Midlands after being blinded in combat during his second tour of army duty in Flanders. He and his wife, Isabel, have employed a tenant couple to manage the farm. Maurice discusses details of production with his manager and assists him with such tasks as attending to the domestic animals, while Isabel continues to review books for a Scottish newspaper. She is pregnant and the Pervins are both anxious about the child because their firstborn died in infancy during Maurice’s initial posting in France. During the year that the Pervins have been living on the farm, a wonderful intimacy has developed between them as Isabel has devoted herself to her husband’s needs, and their “connubial absorption” has effectively...