Charles Justin, a polished Boston banker devoted to the city's layered past, is drawn from domestic unease into a mystery that will upend his sense of time, duty, and desire. At home, his cool marriage to Marie and the presence of psychiatrist Jack Fellowes sharpen the novel's tensions, while the rise of charismatic reformer Henri Dubois and his Golden Rule "Missionist" movement forces Justin to weigh idealism against hidden motives. A late-night call from powerful Devereux Chandler leads Justin into a fevered descent through memory and sleep, where a childhood railroad fantasy breaks into nightmare and lands him in Belvoir, a baffling refuge beyond time. There he meets Dr. Ian Phillips and Deborah Wilkins, a sharp, spirited young woman from 1761 Boston, and discovers a fantastical ship-like world where people from different eras are housed in tailored luxury and judged through mysterious "assignments." As Justin and Deborah explore the lush, theatrical paradise, their loneliness gives way to a passionate bond that crosses centuries. But with Justin's wife waiting in his own time, Deborah facing an unwelcome suitor, and the possibility of leaving Belvoir together hanging in the balance, love becomes inseparable from moral risk and impossible choice. This edition has been fully restored with modern typesetting, custom cover design.