"The whole of England was now in an orgy of Coronation Committees" and inevitably we are swept up. Lydia Merton and Mrs Villars lead some old friends from the war years; Miss Pemberton and her cowed boarder, Mr Downing; the Misses Hopgood and Crowder of the enigmatic Glycerine Cottage; Miss Hopgood's Aunt; and Poppy Turner, to the glorious climax in the production of The Northbridge Coronation Pageant. Along the way, young Ludovic of Pomfret Towers emerges from his shell to shine in Aubrey and Jessica Clovers short play, staged as part of the festivities. Having arrived at a hiatus in the generations of Barsetshire where she has married off all suitably aged persons and is not quite ready to pair off the 3rd generation of fifteen and sixteen year olds, Thirkell reaches back to the truncated romance between Mr Downing and Mrs Turner and (sanctioned by a seriously ill Miss Pemberton) again produces the mandatory nuptials.