Judith Earle, over-earnest and inexperienced, has always been a little in love with each of the four cousins who come to stay next door and, on her return from Cambridge, becomes madly in love with one of them - Roddy, the 'sensation-hunter'. 'Dusty Answer' traces with delicate nostalgia childhood friendships and the pangs of thwarted young love. This novel is about Judith's consuming relationship with the Fyfe family, who each fall in love with Judith, transforming her young womanhood.