For the whole of Rose's respectable married life, she had kept faith with both men. To Ned she was a perfect wife, mother of his son, and elegant hostess of Slepe. To Mylo, Rose was an impetuous and unconventional mistress, answering his erratic and impassionate calls throughout 50 years of tactful duplicity. After Ned's funeral, Rose looks back on a life of dual constancy, passion, humor, and the ambiguities of love, and chooses her future.