The cat's eye

For Bridget Reilly the invitation to spend the summer in Cornwall offers welcome relief from the pain of her marriage breaking up. Her hostess, Nell Wilbraham, is a strikingly beautiful woman, and when Bridget meets the rest of the family she is equally impressed. Another guest is the mysterious Paulinus, a good-looking and charming drifter who entrances them all with his almost pagan vitality. As the weeks pass, these people seem to take on a more vivid, magical quality which arouses in Bridget entirely new emotions and longings.