I do not remember how we were introduced - for we must have been - or anything of the discussion that surely arose when I chose to travel with Jean-Claude rather than my husband. I can only recall - and this vividly - how, wearing my tight-skirted black velvet suit, my new pearl choker and the little half-veil that was so fashionable that year, I rode across Paris with my arms clasped tight round a man to whom I had not spoken and had not closely observed, yet to whom I felt inextricably bound.'

Opal, gamine and sensitive, has been married off by her father to an elderly business associate, Helmut Gressinger, and lives an encapsulated life of luxury in London. When Helmut takes her to Paris, she falls passionately in love with a young French composer of scant means and morals. This is a novel that explores the conflicting demands of passion and morality, the painful battle between head and heart.