"Summertime, and the emigrant workers, dressed in new suits and dreams, are returning home for the annual sojourn. They are young, vigorous; they have money in their pockets. But they do not belong here any more - and they do not belong abroad. They are resentful, dangerous. None more so than the seemingly gregarious Christy Cavanagh. His childhood fixation with Mrs de Burca and her daughters moves into frightening obsession when he finds that the date has been set for the auctioning of their house."--BOOK JACKET.