After her parents' bitter and brutal divorce, young Maisie Farange finds herself pushed back and forth by her selfish mother, Ida, and her vain father, Beale, who value her only as a tool for provoking one another... And when both parents move on and remarry, Maisie-solitary, observant and wise beyond her years- is drawn into a messy and very adult world of lies and betrayal; until she is finally forced to choose her own way of independent living... A deeply serious and unsettling work from a child's perspective, about a child's and all children's intrinsic value as such - innocent and vulnerable. Another great work by a literary master!