At the beginning of the academic year, Red meets Mara. Mara is slightly older, appears to be well-off, and possesses an aura that irrevocably captivates Red. It’s winter in London and right in the middle of the Second World War. The friendship between the two young women gradually intensifies, and they become a couple. However, Mara is married, Red’s aunt threatens to disinherit Red, and anyway, society as a whole does not approve. This charming story explores conventions, the bond of affection between women, and the feeling of isolation.

“She had a thinness of gaiety laid like make-up upon her face, already that smile line at one corner of her mouth etched an ambiguous droop, joy using the same line as sorrow. And I thought this face held all I meant of happiness… until I lost it, and the loss would burn in me slowly, like a cigarette-burn spreading, sloven-sure. Oh God, to think that then for years I may go on like this, wanting to see that face, till the unholy time when all things blunt, and hurt or joy are no more, when all is as if it never had been…”