From Sir Cecil Waring's plans to create a home for boys of naval men killed in the war, to Charles Belton's hesitant courtship and headlong marriage to the spoiled Clarissa Graham, to librarian and local historian Grace Grantely's betrothal to Lord Lufton -- with much discussion in between of gardens, dogs, and pressing issues of economic and political import -- Angela Thirkell's Happy Returns reveals (to quote her own praise of Lady Lufton), "all her excellent qualities to the best advantage."