Life in post-war Britain holds challenges even for country folk, but widowed Caroline Dering copes. Her house (the Vittoria Cottage of the title) is charming and hospitable, her neighbors rely on her generosity and good sense, and her friends love her gallantry and her grace. Years of marriage to a bad-tempered, selfish husband are in the past, and she is happy now with her garden and her children and daily small measures of ...if not joy, then contentment.

But a number of small incidents conspire against Caroline's peace of mind, including her oldest daughter's ill-advised romance, the inexorable ebbing of her once-ample income, and the arrival in the village of an attractive but mysterious stranger. This is a novel in which not an awful lot happens, but it happens with wit and a gentle humor that is very engaging.