The new Italian evening class at Mountainview School in Dublin is like hundreds of others starting up all over the city -but this one has its own special quality... the hopes and dreams of so many people are tied up in the twice-weekly lessons.

Evening Class interweaves the stories of eight people who decide to follow their dream... from Aidan Dunne, waiting all his life for the promotion which never came, and Signora, who followed the man she loved to a far country then waited twenty-three years for him, to Laddy, the hotel porter, with a touching dream in his heart. They come to the evening class, but they all learn far more than they ever bargained for and, by the time they are ready to set off on the promised trip to Italy at the end of the year, everyone's destiny has changed utterly.

Maeve Binchy's great gift as a novelist is to see that in every life, no matter how superficially humdrum, lie drama, tragedy, and often the intolerable burden of secrets long hidden. In this story she shows how a simple decision -to join an evening class - brings these into the transforming light of day.