In a home-made dress of flame-coloured silk, a gawky, would-be curate as an escort, Olivia Curtis' first dance is either going to be gloriously romantic or an agonizing public humiliation. But whatever it entails it has to be an improvement on the Sheer Ordinariness of normal life. With insight and subtlety, Rosamund Lehmann explores the trepidation of a young girl's entry into the adult world and the shadows lurking at even the most innocent of social events.