Philip Home has cultivated his garden with the same precision he has applied to his life - lush, controlled, impressive. To the world he appears brusque, even cruel. Only his inner circle sees the man beneath: tender, vulnerable, perhaps too vulnerable for his own good. In this radiant summer garden where roses climb and afternoon light falls golden through the hedges, Philip navigates the treacherous currents of love and expectation. He is drawn to Madge Ellington, yet his own emotional armor - built brick by brick against a demanding society - threatens to keep them forever apart. When the enigmatic Hermit and the artist Evelyn Dundas arrive as guests, they bring with them different philosophies of living, alternative ways of being that destabilize the careful equilibrium Philip has constructed. E.F. Benson crafts a subtle, unsettling meditation on the personas we construct to survive in society, and the price we pay for authenticity. What happens when love demands we dismantle the very defenses we've built to protect ourselves?
