Summary

Miss Read's charming chronicles of small-town life have achieved an almost legendary popularity worldwide by offering passage to a gentler time. In this tale, one of her first, the arrival of a stranger to live in the village stirs up ripples of speculation and interest. Not only does the village find itself paying tribute to this stranger's hero--a missionary born and bred in Thrush Green--but his presence alters Miss Dimity Dean's romantic prospects. Miss Read succeeds in portraying village life with both its pettiness and generosity, and her unwavering eye for detail neatly captures the character of a gradually disappearing part of English society.