Valley of Decision

David and Mary Blackwell are content with their marriage and their lives–his as a teacher and a gifted amateur cellist, hers as a housewife and exceptionally talented singer. But when a formidable opera star gives Mary a chance to test herself in an American opera production, everything they take for granted is called into question. Like Handel's Semele, the woman who seeks to emulate the gods, Mary Blackwell discovers new perceptions and new powers; and with success comes temptation. And, beset with troubles in England, for David, too, life begins to trace a different pattern. The pressure on their marriage, the fragility of love, the hopes and possibilities of both partners are dramatized in a narrative of great assurance and subtlety.