Anna Bouverie has long served as a priests wife, committed to his work and their family. But the endless rounds of community service and servility have worn away at her until she can barely feel or recognise herself.When her husband fails to gain a promotion to Archdeacon, the realisation that their poor and humble life will never change stretches her to breaking point. Tired of being a slave to the community and wishing to place her bright but bullied daughter in a fee-paying Catholic school, she takes a job in the local supermarket.As her sense of well-being rises, so the community and her husband seek to drag her back down to earth. Torn between her freedom and blind responsibility, and with the interest of more than one man to drive her on, Anna faces a crisis in faith in her marriage and what it means to be The Rectors Wife.