As in most good novels, themes and characters are virtually inseparable.

The central character, Jenny, is a strong-willed, independent, and highly imaginative nineteen-year-old. Unhappy with her weak mother and her dominating relatives who take care of her after her father's desertion, she is baffled but elated when she learns that her recently deceased father, Jason Cirak, has left her both a house and a fortune. She takes the opportunity to leave the uncomfortable nest and go claim her inheritance, living alone in the Meldrum house. When the reader first encounters her, in the opening chapter, she is telling fortunes at a so cial gathering in her new home town.

She is wearing a wig and an unbecoming cocktail dress intended to make her look older than she is. Her powers of observation are keen, and her perceptions of human nature sharp so that her...