For seventeen-year-old Paula, the year 1866 was a momentous one. Just returned to her home in Germany after spending two years in a French convent school, she found it difficult to fit into the ways of a large, busy household after the ordered life of the convent. Five brothers, all younger than herself, kept things in an uproar; Mother tried to teach her to become a proficient housekeeper; and because her father was the judge and administrator of the district, she frequently helped him with his letter-writing. Gently Paula was often discouraged and longed to return to the quiet and peace of the convent. But only to Adolf, the middle brother and always her special friend, could she voice her doubts.

Through the slowly turning seasons of the year, however, Paula gradually enters into the responsibilities, activities, and pleasures of the world around her, and, in time, she discovers that marriage, not the convent, is to be her life.

Mrs. Benary, noted for The Ark, Castle on the Border, A Time to Love, and other exceptionally fine novels for young adults, re-creates a period, place and people with such richness, depth, and reality that the reader comes to know them intimately.

From the dust jacket