The death of his second wife- for whom he'd left his first-brings William Gunner, a successful advertising man, to a terminal point in his life, and, following a doctor's recommendation, he attempts to find the ""sedative of tedium"" in a small Welsh village. Once there several influences- the quiet of the countryside, a woman, a curate, force him reluctantly to reassess his former ""metallic"" existence; to question his meaningless marriages- and therefore the death of his wife; and to doubt not only himself, but also his doubts of the spiritual faith he had always discounted and denied. It is primarily Venetia, his landlady, who goads him into self-awareness and who will be an inalienable part of the new life he will find... A first novel approaches subtle to suggestive areas of inquiry with a cool intelligence and is fresher in its perceptions than its theme. It is- at best- for a selective audience.