Slighted love

A family accusation brings Italy Vale to the Massachusetts shore, where her father's former home faces the sea at Winthrop. Her mother has finally told her why strangers treat them with suspicion: although a court cleared her of responsibility for her husband's death, public opinion continues to condemn her. Italy approaches the house now occupied by his heir, carrying the weight of that confession into unfamiliar company. In Slighted love, Mrs. Alex. McVeigh Miller joins a daughter's loyalty to the pressures of money, reputation and romance.

The story also moves through Boston social life, including a painter's studio where Italy and her friend Alexie pose as contrasting figures of night and morning. Gentle conversation and apparent kindness sit beside Italy's determination to find fresh evidence about her father's death. Readers interested in dramatic popular fiction will find strong emotional appeals, troubled family history and a mystery shaped by the difference between legal judgment and social belief.