Publisher's Synopsis
The village is called Mount of Zeal. The pit lies below. Ted Howker's school is on the edge of Lower Terrace next to the chapel. Upper Terrace is Paradise. Ted and his father and his brothers live in Middle. In the beginning: a household of men, all of whom work in the pit. The reader follows Ted as he reaches for Paradise, and his sister Rose as she seeks personal happiness below. And in the end it is the women who, sadly, inherit the earth.
