• Fiction. By Maeve Binchy. Knopf, $29.95.Grade: B+

Plot in a nutshell: The prolific Binchy, whose stories of an Ireland in transition have pleased readers for years, again writes of village life. This time, progress threatens the old ways when a new highway is proposed that would bypass the town of Rossmore. Feelings run high because the highway would cut through Whitethorn Woods, the site of St. Ann's Well, long a place of pious devotion. While many welcome the relief from traffic congestion the highway would offer, others fear loss of business or fervently denounce the destruction of the shrine.

Binchy immediately reveals these divergent views in her first chapters, with young Father Flynn who considers the shrine to be "of dubious origin," one that promotes pagan rituals and superstitions. His superior, the aging Canon Cassidy, however, still retains devotion, while Father Flynn's brother Eddie involves himself with a syndicate attempting to buy up all land adjoining the proposed highway, gambling on making later profits.

Having set the stage for her story with these characters, Binchy moves into a series of first person vignettes in which numerous villagers, past and present, tell their stories and their connection with the shrine, however remote. All combine for a portrait of a town where little is at it seems.

Sample of prose: "And there were the hundreds who had been helped by St. Ann. They couldn't believe that their fellow countrymen and women were prepared to turn their backs on the saint, allow her shrine to be dismantled. There was talk of people lying down in front of bulldozers if they came to the woods, and obstructing all the earth-moving machinery."

Pros: Binchy has an accessible, comfortable writing style and fine storytelling ability.

Cons: Although the author ultimately ties all the characters together, there are so many that it's sometimes hard to differentiate, and the pace bogs down.

Final word: A pleasant book that touches lightly on the foibles of human nature without dwelling on the negative.