Jessica Speight, a young anthropology student in 1960s London, is at the beginning of a promising academic career when an affair with her married professor turns her into a single mother. Anna is a pure gold baby with a delightful, sunny nature, but it soon becomes clear that she will not be a normal child. As readers are drawn deeper into Jessica's world, they are confronted with questions of responsibility, potential, even age, all with Margaret Drabble's characteristic intelligence, sympathy and wit.