"An immediately recognizable woman, Rachel Cameron has let fourteen years slip by since her father's death forced her to leave college and return home to teach grade school. Trapped by a tyrannically demanding mother, Rachel must suffer daily assaults on her self-respect: from the yearly classes of youngsters, who give her no more than enforced attention, forgetting her as they move on, while she longs for a child of her own; from the school principal, who knowingly takes advantage of her insecurities; from the older fellow teacher, who insinuates herself ambiguously into Rachel's life... But in her thirty-fourth summer quite unexpectedly [she] finds release... [which] provides her with the strength to free herself."