Mr. Field wants a new life, a life cleansed of the old one's disappointments. A concert pianist on the London scene, his career is upended when the train he is travelling on crashes into the wall at the end of a tunnel.
On a whim, he uses his compensation payout to buy a house he has seen only once in a newspaper photograph. Together with his wife, Mim, Mr. Field sets out in the hope that the house will make him happier, or at least less unhappy.
