Louise Bingham, recently widowed in her mid-sixties, decides to "play the tape backwards" and move from Victoria to Montreal, returning to the city of her birth and youth. Newly installed in a downtown co-op, she has to fend off a well-meaning but officious cousin, an overbearing neighbour, and a former lover while making discoveries about her son by a former marriage. In coping, she discovers that Montreal is not the Emerald City. Queen's Court is vintage Edward O. Phillips, a good companion on a cold night or a sunny day at the cottage.