Eighteen months in the life of the Mohun family at their country home, Beechcroft, and not a single one of them will be the same. Eleanor Mohun, the eldest daughter, has shouldered the impossible weight of running a household and raising three younger sisters after their mother's death, all while her own engagement to the kind Mr. Hawkesworth gathers dust in a drawer. She chose duty. The question that haunts every page is whether she chose rightly. Charlotte M. Yonge, writing with remarkable psychological precision for a woman of twenty-four, renders the small domestic tragedies of Beechcroft with the intensity of Greek drama: the loneliness of virtue, the guilt of happiness, the fierce and tender rivalries between sisters who love and irritate each other in equal measure. Eleanor's seriousness contrasts sharply with the carefree spirits of Lilias, Emily, and Jane, each of whom is navigating grief in her own way. This is not a sentimental novel. It is a clear-eyed examination of what family costs, and whether the price is worth paying.
