Expiation

The novel opens with the heroine, Millie, discovering that her wealthy and recently deceased husband has written her out of his will on account of her discreet but long-standing adultery during their marriage. As the plot unfolds we watch the husband's wider family struggle to hide any consequent scandal and maintain their respectability in a south London middle-class suburb. The author paints a vivid picture of the social mores of the time and particularly the subservient role which women of the time were subjected to.