The Beacon

A Cape Cod novel about a young girl, a mature novelist, and an unfinished book, The Beacon is the story of Jessie Gale, who becomes secretary to a middle-aged, temperamental New England writer. So intent is she on the success of his novel that she does not realize her own destiny is being written into its pages. Jesse Gale is rated, by her Belleport neighbors, "a nice little thing without any gumption"--until her autocratic mother and her fiery-tempered grandfather die and leave her alone. Then she gets a job with Thornton Ingalls, a recently widowed magazine writer, who seems willing to overlook her lack of training. Realizing his outstanding talents as a novelist she tries to make him finish the draft of a book which he had started before his wife's' death. What she does not realize is that Ingalls has come to identify her with the heroine of the novel, and that he is very much in love with her. Deeply troubled, Ingalls feels that to ask young Jessie to marry him would be unfair to her and disloyal to his former wife. It is Jessie's unwavering faith in Ingall's talent which serves as the beacon on the path to understanding and happiness.