There are, of course, bonds of attachment underlying all the novels in the "Land of the Living" sequence. In this final volume, they bind together the voices of the dead poet, John Cilydd More, and his youngest son Peredur in a twin-track narrative. Their words reflect the splendours and the miseries of a century of wars and relentless progress. Peredur defies both his mother's hostility and his two brothers' lack of concern to seek out the truth of his father's death and to take part in a protest against the 1969 Investiture that goes violently wrong. Only at the very end when the central figure of the series herself, Amy Parry, is facing death does there seem hope of reconciliation.