The Birth of a Grandfather

This is the story of the Wyeth family set in Cambridge Massachusetts (and in the summer Maine): the very old who are looking back; Sprig and his wife Frances who are finding their way in the midst of youthful hopes that refuse to fade away; and the young embarking on adulthood sometimes with anger. As Sprig struggles to reach past his reserve so that he can be there for his wife and children and for a friend who needs him the other characters likewise find their way to what self-fulfillment means.