In the wet sand by her foot, a bit of colour catches her eye. She picks it up and studies it. The glass is green, pale and cloudy, the colour of limejuice that has been squeezed into a glass. The edges of the shard are weathered and smooth and do not hurt at all. She brushes the sand off and presses the sea glass into her palm, keeping it for luck. She thinks that she and Sexton might need the luck.’

New Hampshire, 1929 when Sexton Beecher proposes to Honora Willard, she lays aside his flaws as one might overlook a small stain in a beautifully embroidered tablecloth only all the guests were seated around it, that the stain had become a beacon while the beautiful embroidery lay hidden in everybody’s lap. As the couple begin their new life in the house at Fortune’s Rocks, their love is tested to the limit. For the Wall Street Crash has as little time for dreams as it does for the mill workers at nearby Ely Falls, readying for strike whatever the consequences.

Read by Emilia Fox and Kerry Shale.

6 hours 45 mins on 4 cassettes