 Dick's wife, an American widow called Vita, and her young sons join him in Cornwall and are worried by his bizarre behaviour.It is made clear that Dick has no passionate feelings for his new wife, does not want the new job in the USA she has found for him and has no fatherly affection for her two boys—which makes plausible his increasing desire to escape into the past.Magnus intends to join Dick, but is killed in what seems like a bizarre accident or suicide—struck by a train whilst straying onto the local railway track.