This memoir of Margaret Wyles's childhood in the industrial valleys of south Wales and in rural Ceredigion is also a family saga revolving around the trials of three generations of the Wyles's family. It focuses on intergenerational rivalry and relationships, all seen from the perspective of a child. The narrative is enhanced by the use of excerpts from real letters, lending an adult perspective against which the child narrator's outlook is contrasted and offering a unique account of a lost era.