Summary

Anne is a young woman who is napping outside and sees George, the man she loves, walking toward her with his girl, Theresa. Anne watches them walk until someone wakes her up and she realizes she is not that Anne any longer. She is Mrs. Nancy Palmer, the wife of Job and mother of Susan and James. George married Theresa and became a poet, while Mrs. Palmer spent her life making a success out of her husband's plantation. Now Mrs. Palmer is supposed to help her daughter entertain her beau, Jasper Tyrrell, but her thoughts are so full of Anne and the life she had intended to live that she cannot concentrate.

When it is bed time, Mrs. Palmer locks the door to her room so her children will not interrupt her with their goodnight kisses and...