Daphne Lethbridge is back at Oxford after a year of war work She hooks up with old friends and makes new ones quickly Someone she cannot warm to, however, is her cynical contemporary Virginia Dawson Things come to a head when the girls' joint tutor, Mr Sylvester, asks Virginia to marry him She spurns him and he, determined to revenge himself upon Virginia, asks Daphne to marry him later the same day Desperately in love with Mr Sylvester, she agrees on the spot As her new husband belittles her she turns at last to her old rival, Virginia, and the two slowly forge a loyal friendship