Unable to find emotional rapport with his wife, Lil, with whom he shares a childless marriage, middle-aged and ailing librarian Leo Lambkin begins a correspondence with an old flame, Bernarda, who writes to him after she hears of the tragic death of his mother.
Bernarda, whom Leo disguises as Jude, informs him that he is the father of her child, Uanito, begot some years previously by violent circumstances at the instigation of apparent burglars in the Chief Librarian’s Dublin home, where Bernarda had been working as an au pair. Overwrought at the time and fearing that Leo would not want a child conceived in such a manner, she kept him in the dark and returned to her native Spain. Leo feels for Uanito as he grows and delights in the boy’s sense of wonder at the world, which is related to him in alternating sad and hilarious accounts by Jude. He suffers however in not being able to share in his son’s development.
As dark wintry days give way to the increasing light and hope of summer, Leo and Jude long for an anticipated rendezvous. But what are the forces that stand in their way?
