Marry in haste, repent at leisure, with lots of observations of missed opportunities and the niggles of marriage. Charting the lives of a family with an aspiring mother, and also the changes in post war society. Pauline keeps up, but Michael hankers after simpler times and places. The running away of their teenage daughter affects the family in different ways at different times. Somehow reminiscent of other US fiction set post-war, such as Middlesex and even The Corrections.