The marriage that is portrayed is that between Vita Sackville-West and Harold Nicolson. It illuminates the intimate mechanics of a marriage in which each partner lives his or her own independent life, but to which each returns as a ship to home port. Includes an Index.

(Key Words: Biography, Nigel Nicolson, Vita, Sackville-West, Violet Keppel Trefusis, Harold Nicolson, Marriage, Homosexuality, Virginia Woolf).