Description

A light‑hearted summer unfolds in a bustling Bar Harbour, where young artist Louis Lawrence finds himself on the steamer Sappho, bound for a seaside house that will host three eccentric sisters known as the Miss Miners and the shy Miss Trehearne. The novel opens with Louis’s witty banter with the absent‑minded Professor Knowles, a Boston academic whose dry humor contrasts with Louis’s worldly, Paris‑touched sensibility. As the vessel cuts through crystal‑blue waters, the reader is introduced to the quirky dynamics of the sisters—Cordelia’s lingering beauty, Elizabeth’s blunt cleverness, and Augusta’s polished accomplishment—setting the stage for a lively exploration of social quirks and youthful ambition.

Against this breezy backdrop, the story gently probes the clash between art and intellect, free‑spirited romance and genteel propriety. Louis’s observations of the harbor’s genteel residents and their habit of swapping “‑isms” for conversation hint at a community both charmingly provincial and surprisingly modern. The narrative promises a summer of witty repartee, subtle self‑discovery, and the tender complications that arise when hearts and ideals meet on the edge of the sea.