American poet Max Parnell has created an idyllic life for his family in a picturesque Peloponnesian village. His adored English wife, Briseis, whose mother is Greek, teaches in a local school. Their eight-year-old twins, Leonidas and Andromache, speak Greek with their many pals. A summer visit from a New York artist friend prompts a bracing plunge into local culture, history, personalities, and scenic wonders. Sandra's desire for a child will provoke a dramatic intervention by her friends. Part Two leaps eight years ahead, as Briseis's devastating illness changes the marriage and all their lives. Mark Sargent's beautiful new novel, bursting with exuberance and poetry, deepens into a fiercely honest, strongly felt portrait of a family's experience of mortality and loss.