The Prime Minister's daughter Edelman, Maurice

While not a sequel to the author Maurice Edelman’s previous book, “The Minister,” this book resumes the story of the new Prime Minister Melville and his family. The story itself concerns Melville's daughter, Sylvia, who has just returned from the U.S. after an unhappy affair with a Columbia professor, Don Cullen. Sylvia, pulling out of a depressed, difficult time, is considerably set back by one of Don's abrupt appearances and disappearances; under the influence of too many sleeping pills, she has an accident at the wheel and is accused of drunken driving, a scandal which will threaten her father's career but will ultimately strengthen the Melvilles' domestic rapport. Sylvia, her troubles rise partly out of the past marital difficulties of the parents. The wife of the Prime Minister once had an affair with his brother, and when the adolescent daughter discovered the lovers together the shock was traumatic and permanent.