This is a pleasant story that plods along charmingly to its expected ending. Major Pettigrew is a retired British army officer and widower. He lives in a village where Mrs. Ali has a small grocery store. Both are kind and cultured, and their friendship deepens and develops in a satisfying way. The story simply had too many annoying stereotypes for me. The wonderful migrant; the shallow, consumerist son; the brash, clueless American and so forth. For a book that denounced bigotry, it painted its characters with a broad brush.