When is an infatuation an obsession? What makes a love story? Is it true love or merely the idea of what a relationship should or could be? A Patient Obsession follows the lives of Henry and Patience from their early encounters at the end of World War II when Henry is convalescing in Wales after experiencing traumatic events during his time serving in India. His early return to the terrors of the India/Pakistan partition only serve further to haunt his life and relationships. Time passes from Henry's early fixation on Patience to their separate lives in England and Australia to a long-imagined and wished for meeting in Tuscany. Told partly through memories and correspondence the novel explores the sadness of obsession: when reality does not live up to your dream.