In the 1970s South, Mallie Malcolm (aka Valeria Vose) is not leading the life she expected. Raised to be a wife and mother in a closed society with traditions that have blinded her from her own potential and her desire to be an artist, she is unprepared for a life-altering crisis. Then, just when she's on the brink of forty, her eighteen-year marriage is shattered by her husband's infidelity and his lover's attempted suicide. Searching for direction, Valeria turns to an Episcopal priest--and spins into a clandestine love affair that results in abuse and betrayal. Ultimately, however--despite her disillusionment and pain--she picks herself up and embarks on a course that leads to personal, creative independence. Relentlessly honest in its internal observations, rich in detail of time and place, Valeria Vose shows that it is triumph of the spirit that wins in the end.