In the steamy winter mood of a Cambridge teashop, two women meet for the first time. A friendship is formed, but soon circumstances take them to different places.... Kate, to a cottage near an English moor, her friend to pursue new adventures in work. On meeting up again in the moorland cottage, both women feel an affinity with Henry Ryecroft, the character in the small volume by George Gissing, and the way in which his words convey his many moods. But they playfully decide that Henry won’t do for them.... it must be Henrietta. The notebooks come into being, charting Henrietta’s life... a life ultimately shared in the way only writing can do.