Raised in Marrakech by a French mother and English father a 17-year-old girl has learned above
all to avoid mauvais ton ("bad taste" loses something in the translation). One should not ask
servants to wait on one during Ramadan: they must have paid leave while one spends the holy
month abroad. One must play the piano if staying at Claridge's one must regrettably install a
Clavinova in the suite so that the necessary hours of practice will not be inflicted on fellow
guests. One should cultivate weavers of tweed in the Outer Hebrides but have the cloth made up
in London one should buy linen in Ireland but have it made up by a Thai seamstress in Paris
(whose genius has been supported by purchase of suitable premises). All this and much more she
has learned governed by a parent of ferociously lofty standards. But at 17 during the annual
Ramadan travels she finds all assumptions overturned. Will she be able to fend for herself?
Will the dictates of good taste suffice when she must deal singlehanded with the sharks of
New York?
