内容简介：
Sydney Barham is forced to retire on a small pension to his isolated house in the country. The improvements he effects there make him wish he had someone to leave it to, someone who would give the garden continuity and so afford him a kind of immortality. But a physical condition makes it impossible for him to father a child naturally. When he meets Amanda, a lively divorcA(c)e with children of her own, he thinks of marrying her and adopting the children. But it proves a turbulent affair. Then a change in his circumstances, information he gleans from a geneticist, and the dubious lawyer he comes into contact with in America all point him to another direction. With more to leave, his desire for an heir becomes almost obsessive, but the secret measures he takes affect the lives of all those around him and fuel the folklore of the village.