The soldier returns from the front to the three women who love him.
His wife, Kitty, with her cold, moonlight beauty, and his devoted cousin Jenny wait in their exquisite home on the crest of the Harrow-weald.
Margaret Allington, his first and long-forgotten love, is nearby in the dreary suburb of Wealdstone.
But the soldier is shell-shocked and can only remember the Margaret he loved fifteen years before, when he was a young man and she an inn-keeper's daughter.
His cousin he remembers only as a childhood playmate; his wife he remembers not at all.
The women have a choiceto leave him where he wishes to be, or to 'cure' him.
It is Margaret who reveals a love so great that she can make the final sacrifice.
Virago The return of the soldier | rebecca west
