'The morning was clear. There was no wind on the lake. There was also a great stillness. When the bells rang out for Mass, the strokes trembling on the water, they had the entire world to themselves.'

'The doors of the house were open. Jamesie entered without knocking and came in noiselessly until he stood in the doorway of a large room where the Ruttledges were sitting. He stood as if waiting under trees for returning wildfowl. He expected his discovery to be quick. There would a cry of surprise and reproach; he would counter by accusing them of not being watchful enough. There would be welcome and laughter. When the Ruttledges continued to converse calmly about a visit they were expecting that same afternoon, he could contain himself no longer. Such was his continual expectation of discovery that in his eavesdropping he was nearly always disappointed by the innocence he came upon.'

From the very opening pages, the reader sees many memorable Irish characters as they move about Joe and Kate Ruttledge, who have come to Ireland from London in search of a different life. There is John Quinn, who will stop at nothing to ensure a flow of women; Johnny, who left for England twenty years before in pursuit of love; and Jimmy Joe McKiernan, head of the IRA, both auctioneer and undertaker. The gentle Jamsie and his wife Mary embody the spirit of the place. They have never left the lake but know everything that ever stirred or moved there.

In passages of beauty and truth, the drama of a year in the lives of these and many other characters unfolds through the action, the rituals of work, religious observances and play. By the novel's close, the reader will feel that he/she has been introduced, with deceptive simplicity, to a complete representation of existence - an enclosed world has been transformed into an Everywhere.