The Wheatcroft Family live in 1960's Cambridge. The father is a professor and all three of his children have places at the university. Mark, like his father in a scientist but Dominic, Mark's quite different twin has leanings of a spiritual nature leading to a holiday trip to an ashram in India. The novel involves hidden truth's about the Wheatcrofts, including issues of prejudice, mental health and personal tragedy but it is also compassionate reaching affairs of the heart which reach the very heart of the family and almost tears it appart.