"How insignificant seem the influences of the sensible things which are tossed and fall and lie about us in the environment of early childhood. How indelibly, as we afterwards discover, they affect us, giving form and feature to early experiences of feeling and thought, which abide with us ever afterwards . . ."

In an idealized memory of childhood, a young boy's awareness of the world around him blossoms―an awareness of beauty and wonder, but also of death . . . The meeting of a mysterious stranger and a fanciful young woman results in the...