As his wife lays dying, 60-year-old Roger Gale promises her that he will try to connect with his three daughters: Edith, a happy wife and mother; unmarried Deborah, absorbed in her work as a school principal; and free-spirited Laura, who is determined to live on the dangerous side of life. Summer at their farm in New Hampshire provides yearly respite from New York City, but it cannot keep them safe from reality forever. Winner of the first-ever Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1918, Ernest Poole's (1880-1950) novel is a sensitive portrayal of a patriarch contending with bereavement, financial ruin, and war, struggling to adapt to modern life in his attempt to unite his family.