Summary

Part One

In Chapter One, the town of Rye sits in the flat marshes beyond the Sussex bluffs. Hugh Grange works in medicine, seeking to become the primary assistant surgeon to Sir Alex Ramsey. Hugh also considers he is in love with Lucy, the daughter of Alex. Hugh is staying in Rye with his Aunt Agatha Kent and cousin by Agatha’s dead sister, Daniel, who discuss the prospect of war in mainland Europe. Agatha’s husband, Uncle John, is a senior official in the Foreign Office working to weather the storm that has flared up since the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, leader of Austria-Hungary. Daniel is to go to work in the Foreign Office. Locally, Agatha has battled the local school board to get them to hire a woman, Beatrice Nash, to teach Latin. This is cemented by the recommendation...