The second novel in Durrell's Avignon Quintet, first published in 1978. "The novel revolves around the novelist Blandford, introduced at the end of the previous novel Monsieur, and introduces us to the sisters Livia and Constance, both briefly figuring at the end of Monsieur, their brother Hillary, Constance's husband Sam and a number of other new characters. Livia is a wild, dark girl who visits her sister from time to time, becoming embroiled in romance and worse.