This book is a brilliant portrait of the snobbery of the old Bostonians, threatened by the radical politics and the Jazz Age energy of the 1930s. But its heart is the story of one woman's quest for love and for a meaning in life, a compelling pilgrimage which takes her to the brink of madness. In describing Sonie's experience the author hauntingly evokes the dilemma of every immigrant who has to choose a history, a culture and a future with which to identify in a new world.