THE INEVITABLE HOUR

1890 -- 1902, Martinique- this sees an inescapable climax -- the eruption of Pelee and follows interlocking stories. First of the peasant Paul, son of the overseer of the De Legle lands, who dares, through the years to believe in His love for his seigneur's daughter Joan; then of the friend he makes on his flight from beating De Legle, Fez who is a coward and eventually a murderer; next of the artist who recognizes his failure and who hopes he can achieve his dreams on the island and who finds in the chabine Clio a gold which is false then true; Dr. Griffon joins the company through the fatal accident in his surgery and devotes himself to the isolation of yellow fever; and, as the constant among them all is the the trouble maker, the prophet, Atlas, the last of the Carib braves; all meeting, passing, close and distant until each is caught in the devastation that the awakened volcano unlooses. Marshall is a storyteller and here his plot neatens and idies up the perplexities -- the turning point --the crisis -- the achievement -- of his puppets with full score for each turn of fortune. Just settle back.