January 1929, Ballyscat, Co. Kerry, Ireland. Patrick O'Grimwhistle a married man with multiple offspring is about to turn forty-one. Once a nationalist rebel and aspiring poet, he is now unhappily an assistant bank manager. But things are about to change. Two years previously Patrick had granted a bank loan to an eccentric anthropologist for an expedition to Central America. The man is reported missing and Patrick is charged with safely returning him to the bosom of his family. While Patrick is overseas, his wife Matilda has adventures of her own. An outspoken suffragette, her adventures during her husband's absence revolve around her desire for a good horse so she can go steeplechasing, and her participation in a naturist music ensemble. Throughout this picaresque novel, both Patrick and Matilda encounter the various pitfalls of a long separation to reach their own epiphanies of sorts. Both emerge a little wiser with a somewhat deeper appreciation of each other and their life together. Somewhat.