In this, his fifth full-length book, Norman Lock paints the portrait of a lonely everywoman, a plain Jane who spends days pushing a mop and nights drinking tea, sitting her sadness on her elbow by the window looking out. Out, where all is hurrying over the rainy streets. Lock paints the portrait of an old woman with a cracked face who, as a child, was teased to tears. Now, years later, in the last phase of her life, she is preparing for her own long rowing into death.