Written in the form of a final letter to his young daughter, Jane, N. recalls his relationship with Margaret Towne and Margarettown, the upstate New York town to which she introduces him--one inhabitated by a mysterious family of women named Old Margaret, Marge, Mia, Maggie, and May--in which N. and Margaret are joined in a bond that ranges from first meeting and courtship to marriage and finally death. A first novel.