'Who would suspect her sense of fun and irony, of a passionate love for
beauty and the power to drag it from its hidden places? Who would
imagine that Miss Mole had pictured herself, at different times, as an
explorer in strange lands, as a lady wrapped in luxury and delicate
garments?'Miss Hannah Mole has for twenty years earned her living
precariously as a governess or companion to a succession of difficult
old women.Now, aged forty, a thin and shabby figure, she returns to
Radstowe, the lovely city of her youth. Here she is, if not exactly
welcomed, at least employed as housekeeper by the pompous Reverend
Robert Corder, whose daughters are sorely in need of guidance. But even
the dreariest situation can be transformed into an adventure by the
indomitable Miss Mole. Blessed with imagination, wit and intelligence,
she wins the affection of Ethel and her nervous sister Ruth. But her
past holds a secret that, if brought to life, would jeopardise
everything.