Set in the privileged world of a 1950s' English boarding school, Geras's stylish novel plays clever games with the motifs and idioms of fairytale and romance. Megan, its central character, is an updated Rapunzel, "the one with golden hair falling over the window sill" of the lofty room she shares with Alice and Bella, her fellow sixth-formers; the prince who comes riding by is Simon, the newly appointed lab assistant. Soon, as Megan is forced to confront the consequences of her impulsive bid for change and freedom, the comforting predictability of school gives way to more pressing urgencies. The atmospere of the time, subtly evoked in references to contemporary fads, fashions and popular music (remember Radio Luxembourg?), is engagingly caught, as is the period claustrophobic ethos of boarding-school life.