The novel's four parts are named for the four major characters — Molly, Sandy, Anna, and finally Jude herself, as each character in turn embodies parts of Jude's psyche, which all converge at the end. The movement from place to place — Kentucky, New York, and Paris — shows the progression from childhood to adulthood against a backdrop of culture and history.

Alther places her characters precisely in times and places which although highly individualized and particularized, are linked by memory and recollection to form a tightly woven background. The dialogue and details of childhood and adolescence in Kentucky — holy rollers, kissing games, and Jude's memories of her mother — interlock with young adulthood in New York, with its new friendships, mysteries, and mores — and with the even more alien world of Parisians, puzzling creatures who speak a Lacanian dialect and whose every gesture has a...