Scotland, 1912. Antonia McCulloch’s life hasn’t gone the way she planned. She and her husband, Malcolm, have drifted apart; her burgeoning art career came to nothing; and when she looks in the mirror, she sees an unhappy woman. But at least she will always have Balmarra, her family’s grand Scottish estate, and its exquisite glass house, filled with exotic plants that can take her far away from her daily disappointments. So when her estranged brother’s wife, Cicely Pick, arrives unannounced, with her young daughter and enough trunks to last the summer, Antonia is instantly suspicious. What besides an inheritance dispute could have brought her glamourous sister-in-law all the way from India to cold, gray Scotland? Still, Cicely introduces excitement and intrigue into Antonia’s dull existence, and, as they get to know one another, Antonia realizes that Cicely, with her dark skin and complicated marriage, has her own burdens to bear. Slowly, a fragile friendship grows between them. But when the secrets each is keeping become too explosive to conceal, the truth threatens their uneasy balance and the course of their entire lives.
Gorgeously transporting and evocative, Beatrice Colin’s searing portrait of female friendship and incisive exploration of race, class, and equality is as powerfully resonant today as when Balmarra stood, a century ago.
