In the fifties in the harsh northeast of Scotland a woman was judged by the quality of her daughters and found wanting if they were not wholesome and pure. Women were to be chaste, comely and good mothers and their daughters were to be chaste, comely and good. But when you have shown a girl her loveliness there is no turning back. Once she knows the power of her face and body a girl is changed forever. That's where John McEwan's wife, Kate, was so clever.