Evelyn Innes

The novel traces the upbringing and inner life of a young woman raised by parents devoted to early music: a father who restores and performs ancient instruments and a mother who, after losing her voice, teaches. Her musical education and her parents' aesthetic ambitions shape her tastes and social prospects, while conflicts arise between devotion to historical art, commercial pressures, and the expectations of marriage and respectability. The narrative examines artistic vocation, parental influence, and the compromises demanded by society, following her emotional development as ideals encounter practical realities.