In this fourth novel in the author's Children Of Violence series, Martha Quest realizes her second marriage is breaking up. She is completely disillusioned, her dark mood intensified by increasingly strained relations with her parents. Determined to resist the erosion of her personality, she engages in her first satisfactory love affair and momentarily breaks free of her suffocating unhappiness. Martha's bliss is shattered as her lover impulsively departs for Israel, then returns to Africa, only to drift from her once more. At the book's close, Martha stands alone, about to embark on the next stage of her journey to self-realization.

(Key Words: Fiction, Novels, Doris Lessing, Love Affairs, Betrayal, Nobel Prize Winners).