Deborah, a young girl from a Shropshire farm family, falls so deeply in love with the new preacher that she agrees to live with him as man and wife without marriage. She instinctively understands that finding love is like finding the mystical golden arrow--a lesson that Stephen has yet to learn. Their relationship, combining the most pragmatic aspects of rural life with a sublime vision of the natural world, is paralleled by that of her brother Joe and his bride Lily, a restless girl who sees her marriage only as an escape from her domineering father. - Summary by Anne Erickson