Two generations of Merediths farm the land running down to the River Dean. Robin Meredith bought his dairy farm just before he married Caro, his enigmatic Californian wife, while his father Harry is an arable farmer on the adjoining farm, working the land, with the help of his other son Joe, just as his father and grandfather had before him. But now Caro has died, as much of a mystery to the Meredith family as she was when she arrived twenty years ago, leaving Robin and the rest of the family to cope with the loss.
With Caro gone, her adopted daughter Judy feels cut adrift, while for Joe the despair at her death is far deeper than the family suspects. And into the midst of this unhappy family comes Zoe, Judy's London friend, an outsider with her strange townie appearance, independent spirit and disturbing directness. Everyone underestimates Zoe's power as a catalyst for change as the realities behind the seeming idyll of a rural community become ever clearer.