Four very diverse women, all seeking revitalization from the dreary February rains of 1920s London, rent the small medieval castle of San Salvatore, nestled high above the bay of Portofino, Italy. Arriving at San Salvatore, they find it awash with the scent of flowers, its olive groves terracing down to the sun-warmed sea.

Each has her reasons for desiring escape. Mrs. Wilkins and Mrs. Arbuthnot are glad to leave behind their insipid duties and unresponsive husbands. The elderly Mrs. Fisher wishes only to sit in the sun and replay her youthful memories, and the bewitchingly beautiful Lady Caroline Dester desires to have seclusion from all her adoring suitors. Amid the canopies of fragrant wisteria, in the sweet sunshine and melodious silence, fate has some surprises in store for all of them.

"Nadia May's narration is excellent, especially in differentiating the women's voices and in reading their inner dialogues...This performance is easy to listen to, and this recording is well worth having."

ELIZABETH VON ARNIM grew up in England. During her first marriage, to Count Henning August von Arnim-Schlagenthin, she lived in Berlin and Pomerania, where she wrote the first of twenty-one novels. They had five children, who were tutored by E. M. Forster. After her husband's death, she moved to Switzerland, where she had a brief affair with H.G. Wells before marrying Francis, second Earl Russell, brother of Bertrand Russell. On the failure of her second marriage, Elizabeth ran away to America.