'This book takes its title from the ambivalent hopes and fears of the young, pregnant Nettie Palmer for her first-born, Aileen (1915–88). After graduating from the University of Melbourne with first-class honours in French, Aileen accompanied her parents on a trip to England in 1935. In her later years at university, she was caught up as a young communist in protest causes. Activism and writing were to become ‘the two great passions of her life’.' (Introduction)