Describing the schemes and exploits of various residents of a women's hostel in London in 1945, Spark writes with much humor but little malice. Although the young womens' plans and self-images are all somewhat fanciful -- the male characters' intellectual and political pretensions are equally so -- Spark is not satirizing the pettiness of their concerns but observing their lives with amusement and compassion. Alongside the author, we become interested in the ambiguous lives they lead as wartime draws to a close and Britain prepares for what is to come next. 

Spark's trademark time-jumping is mostly used as an elegant frame-narrative and as a way to add flavor (and some retrospective sense of proportion) to a concise central narrative. When we eventually come to this narrative's tragic conclusion, further poignancy is added to the characters being depicted. We close with a quite compelling look at a kind of sincere but businesslike mourning which feels insightfully appropriate to the specific time and the specific place being depicted (that is, England in the year 1945). 

The clever biblical allegory at play is thoughtfully done, although not heavy-handed enough to force itself upon the reader.