Twenty-five years after their wedding journey, the Marches face a different kind of crossing: back to Europe, back to each other, back to who they once were. March, a weary editor, resists the trip against all reason his doctor, his wife, and his friend Fulkerson can muster. But his wife remembers the young couple they were, the promises made abroad, the dreams they carried home. What begins as a debate over rest and recreation becomes something deeper: an examination of what endures when youth fades and habit settles. Howells, the paramount chronicler of American domestic life, renders the quiet terror of middle age with his signature grace. No melodrama, no grand revelations. Just two people circling the question every long marriage must answer: have we become who we hoped to be?
