Book excerpt: "Two young Englishwomen arrive on vacation, expecting a conventional holiday. They are Charity Selborne, a extravagantly lovely war widow, and her amusing, irreverent artist friend, Louise Cray. The enchanting vista of Provence delights them, and Charity is pleased to make her first conquest, a young man of thirteen who is having trouble with his dog. The young man introduces himself and Charity is charmed ... until she senses a terrible maturity behind his grave eyes. From that point on the tension mounts steadily until it reaches breaking point, while the thirsty heat of the Provençal summer, the noise of cicadas, the dust of country roads all contribute to the superb realism of the novel.