Greer's book is a quiet, meditative reflection on marriage told through the eyes of Pearlie. She narrates the story so while she tells the "story" of her marriage to Holland you never fully hear Holland's version of the story; she is always told what Holland might be thinking or needing and never truly asks for herself. Because the novel is set in the 1950s of the Korean War, the McCarthy hearings, and the Rosenberg execution, real events also shape Pearlie's story and thoughts on her marriage. I won't pretend that I didn't figure out the central problem of the marriage in the first twenty pages but the beauty of the novel is reading Pearlie's reasoning and decision-making process. Of particular interest is Pearlie's fixation on Ethel Rosenberg and how Ethel is reflected in Pearlie's thoughts; the ramifications of silence and inaction are at the heart of Pearlie's story, too, and Pearlie has learned to find her voice and path at the end of the novel.