St Joseph s is an inner-city jungle. Its

inhabitants ack restraint; they rage and roar

their frustrations.

Ruth Flemming is a wealthy volunteer

worker. She gives support to battered wives,

lonely old ladies, and one-parent families. In

her daily visits to the St Joseph s district she

meets clients whose husbands depart from

home as regularly as trains; towards other

women, other cities, into prison. It is not

really a problem she has ever expected to

face in her own life.

But Harry s disappearance reveals all the

gaps and omissions in Ruth s life. She has

used her husband as the whipping-boy for

all her secret fears and frustrations. She has

suspected him of treachery, but as she

confesses to Cassie, Tm a woman who can

live with suspicion, it s the confirmation of

it that destroys me.

Destruction has lately become a way of

life in St Joseph s. People are always tearing

things down, or digging them up. It is very

demoralising; and Ruth s dilemma is that of

the enthusiastic amateur who imagines that

her dedication can compensate for a lack of

professional skill. She makes many mistakes,

both in her personal life and in her dealings

with clients. But Ruth is a survivor. In the

end she will be stronger than Harry, tougher

than Mclnnes, the ruthless and feared

Detective Sergeant, and more competent

than her mother and Georgina.

Her final dilemma will be to find a way of

accepting love when it is offered to her.