By turns funny, heartwarming & occasionally sad, this memoir offers an American woman`s view of pastoral Scotland today. It is an account of the author`s marriage & her years spent at The Guynd, her husband`s ancestral estate. We follow her steep learning curve in dealing with a grand & crumbling mansion, an overgrown landscape, troublesome tenants, local aristocracy, Scottish rituals & a husband for whom change is anathema. A son & heir draws Belinda Rathbone into an intimate relationship with every tier of local society, while a visiting friend heightens the strain of the culture gap. Alternating between enchantment & despair, Rathbone digs into family & local history in an effort to understand her surroundings & free her husband from the grip of the past. Like a letter home from a strange l&, this tale of the journey through the wrought iron gates into the living past is both wry & poignant, both oddball & reflective of the ties that bind us.