Ted Tice arrives at Peverel as apprentice to Professor Sefton Thrale, meeting the Bell sisters for the first time.

The narrator reveals that Ted will commit suicide in the future before reaching the peak of his career.

Paul Ivory arrives at Peverel with fiancée Tertia Drage, and Caro is immediately drawn to him.

Ted confesses his love to Caro during a walk; she rejects him but agrees to correspond by letter.

Caro and Paul drive to Avebury and make love at a country inn, beginning their secret affair.

Paul tells Caro that Tertia is pregnant, and Caro weeps openly in front of him for the first time.

Major Ingot abandons Dora, and Caro travels to Portugal alone to rescue her half-sister despite her employer's refusal of leave.

Sefton Thrale dies and leaves the family estate Peverel entirely to his son Christian.

Caro meets American businessman Adam Vail when he takes up the cause of condemned South American dissidents in London.

Grace tells Ted that Caro is marrying Adam Vail, and Ted confesses that everything he does now will be for lack of her.

Caro moves to New York with Adam and suffers a miscarriage, leaving her unable to have children.

Adam Vail dies of a stroke, closing Caro's American chapter and drawing her back toward England.

Paul confesses to Caro that he had a secret gay affair with Victor Locker and deliberately allowed Victor to drown.

Paul reveals to Caro that Ted Tice witnessed Victor's drowning and kept the secret for decades.

Ted and Caro meet in Sweden and confess their mutual love, making plans to finally be together.

The story opens with Ted Tice falling for Caro Bell at the Thrales' English country house, as Caro instead embarks on a fateful affair with the charming playwright Paul Ivory. After Paul ends the affair when his wife becomes pregnant, Caro rescues her troubled half-sister Dora before marrying American businessman Adam Vail and moving to New York. Adam's death brings Caro back into the orbit of Paul and Ted, both of whom harbor long-held secrets about the drowning of a man named Victor Locker. Paul's shocking confession about Victor's death and Ted's role as silent witness finally cause Caro to recognize Ted's true depth of character. The novel closes with Caro and Ted confessing their mutual love at last, though the narrator's earlier announcement of Ted's future suicide casts a shadow over their reunion.

The headline love story and life events of Caro Bell.

The Bell sisters' parents die in a shipwreck, leaving Caro and Grace in the care of their overbearing half-sister Dora.

Christian Thrale visits the sisters' London flat and resolves to court Grace rather than the more formidable Caro.

Ted walks with Caro at Peverel and tells her the story of how he freed a German prisoner of war as a teenager.

Paul and Ted develop an immediate mutual antipathy upon meeting at Peverel, each sensing a lifelong rivalry.

Caro writes to Ted describing her Avebury visit but deliberately omits any mention of Paul Ivory.

Dora marries Major Ingot and moves to Portugal, temporarily relieving the sisters of responsibility for her.

Paul's play 'Friend of Caesar' opens to success, and Caro reunites with Paul at his theater to resume their affair.

Caro divulges Ted's secret about the German prisoner to Paul during an intimate conversation.

Ted marries Margaret, a scientist's daughter, despite remaining deeply in love with Caro.

Ted inaugurates a major telescope he has developed in a ceremony attended by the Queen.

Christian begins an affair with young typist Cordelia Ware while Grace is away at Peverel, then abruptly ends it.

Caro takes on translating the poems of imprisoned Latin American dissident Ramón Tregeár from Spanish into English.

Tregeár dies an atrocious death, and his translated poems are published to wide critical acclaim.

Grace falls in love with her son Rupert's doctor Angus Dance and boldly invites him to her birthday party.

Grace and Caro visit the memory-fading Charmian Thrale in a nursing home and discuss returning to Australia.

The sisters' story begins with the drowning of their parents in a shipwreck, which shapes their characters and leaves them under the guardianship of the overbearing Dora, who eventually marries and moves to Portugal. Ted confides his youthful story of freeing a German prisoner to Caro, creating a bond she later undermines by sharing the secret with Paul Ivory during their affair. As the years pass, Ted marries the devoted Margaret and inaugurates a great telescope before the Queen, while Christian pursues and then discards a brief affair with a young typist. Caro channels her creative energy after Adam's death into translating the poems of a doomed Latin American dissident, while Grace secretly falls in love with her son's doctor and rediscovers a life beyond domesticity. The pool closes with the sisters reuniting to visit the fading Charmian Thrale in a nursing home and contemplating a journey back to their Australian roots.

The secondary lives, relationships, and events surrounding the Bell sisters.

Caro tells Ted during a Peverel walk that he must not be so interested in her, firmly rejecting his courtship.

At Paul and Tertia's engagement dinner, Paul conspicuously singles out Caro with his attention before the assembled guests.

Grace and Christian marry, with Grace settling into domesticity while Caro insists on living and working independently.

Caro's colleague Valda declares her 'a possibility lost' who has sacrificed her greater potential for romantic love.

Caro and Paul meet by chance in a London park, and Paul sees that she is still obsessed with him.

Paul tells Caro in her Covent Garden flat that she is the most he has ever felt for anything or anyone.

Christian arranges to remove his aging mother Charmian from Peverel and place her in a residence for the elderly.

Caro confronts her boss Mr. Leadbetter over gender discrimination in the office and submits her resignation.

Josie coldly tells Caro she felt threatened by the pregnancy, revealing her callous indifference to Caro's loss.

A woman Ted sleeps with at a conference urges him to act on his long-suppressed feelings for Caro.

Ted returns home after learning Adam has died and hints to Margaret that she deserves a man who truly loves her.

Angus Dance confesses love for Grace during a rainy meeting but refuses to commit adultery and departs for Leeds.

Paul's son Felix requires leukemia treatment in New York, stripping Paul of his usual emotional control and detachment.

Paul warns Caro that she will one day tell his secret to someone she loves, just as she once betrayed Ted's confidence.

Caro boards a plane for Rome as the sound of takeoff evokes a sinking ship, casting foreboding over her reunion with Ted.

From the outset, Caro's firm rejection of Ted's courtship sets her on a path toward the more glamorous but ultimately hollow Paul Ivory, with whose affair she gradually loses herself. Over time, key revelations alter the balance of power among the characters, including Paul's calculated confession to Caro about his secret life and his prediction that she will inevitably share his secret with someone she loves, just as she once betrayed Ted's confidence. Ted's quiet reckoning with his unfulfilling marriage and his undying love for Caro runs parallel to Grace's discovery of her own suppressed desires through her feelings for Angus Dance. Paul's emotional exposure during his son's illness marks the collapse of his characteristic control, while Caro's journey toward self-knowledge accelerates in the novel's final section. The pool closes with Caro boarding a plane to Rome as ominous imagery of a ship going down casts a shadow of foreboding over her long-awaited reunion with Ted.

The pivotal decisions, discoveries, and emotional shifts that reshape each character.