Grace de Silva, wife of the shiftless but charming Aloysius, has five children and a crumbling marriage. Her eldest son, Jacob, wants desperately to go to England. He hates his island home. Thorton, the most beautiful of all the children, and his mothers favourite, dreams of becoming a poet. Alicia wants to be a concert pianist. Only Frieda has no ambition other than to remain close to her family. But civil unrest is stirring in Sri Lanka and Christopher, the youngest rebel of the family, caught up in the tragedy that follows. -- inside jacket cover.