Shy, sensible Belinda has been secretly in love with the poetry-spouting, married archdeacon of their church for 30 years. Meanwhile, her confident younger sister Harriet is ardently pursued by Count Ricardo Bianco. Although she has turned down every man who proposes, Harriet still welcomes the reverend Edgar Donne, library assistant Mr. Mold, and the colonial bishop of Mbawawa. Will anyone get married, or will spinsterhood go on and on? A warm, affectionate depiction of a postwar English village, Pym's 1950 debut is unquestionably a classic.