Jane Ophelia - Jo - retired publisher, lies on her deathbed. In between the attentions of her favourite nurse and visits from her not always grateful children, her fourth husband and her only female friend, she relives the story of her past from childhood to old age; from life with her adopted father to facing death in a terminal ward. As her story unfolds, the immeasurable and alienating impact of two World Wars on one woman's life is unveiled, and with it a shocking revelation about her parentage... Melancholic, haunting and optimistic, is Penelope Famer's rich evocation of the vicissitudes of a 20th Century life and of one woman's journey to make peace with the global and personal conflicts of her past.