This first novel charts the tragic path of a writer, Kate, and an archaeologist, Nick, as romance blooms among the ruins of Greece, then fades and is later restored in California, even after Kate has married another man. Kate's attraction to Nick is immediate, and she quits her job as a travel writer to stay with him on a paradisiacal Greek island. But Nick's diffidence and refusal to tie himself down eventually defeat her, and she flees back to America to marry Henry, a man she had formerly abandoned. Not surprisingly, Kate is quickly dissatisfied with Henry and longs for the more adventurous and challenging Nick, who conveniently returns to Berkeley. But Nick hasn't changed, and even as they start an affair he seems to toy with Kate's emotions, finally pushing her to a crisis when she discovers that she is pregnant.