Eileen Hughes, twenty years old and never before out of Northern Ireland, has arrived in London for a week's holiday with Bernard and Mona McAuley, who are not only her employers but also, she believes, her friends. In Brian Moore's masterful handling, this seemingly simple story darkens and expands, exploring the nature of obsession—both spiritual and erotic—with an elegance, anarchic playfulness, and imagination that recall Henry Green or Muriel Spark.