In 1966 when Aulis Price leaves her Welsh home and her teaching job to marry Staffordshire farmer Martin Peverell, she looks forward eagerly to her new life at Abbotshall, the beautiful Georgian farmhouse which is the Peverell family home. Aulis takes as her role model Martin's elegant and competent mother, Mollie.But the young bride soon finds that Abbotshall and Mollie are not all that they seem. Behind the dignified facade lurks conflict, between youth and age, the past and the future. This conflict is rooted in a sinister secret which overshadows Abbotshall and all who live there.As Aulis struggles to adjust to Abbotshall's ways and the local culture she determines to remain true to herself. Meanwhile she sees her beloved Martin caught in a battle of loyalties. Can Aulis take him with her into the future or will she, too, be sacrificed to Abbotshall's past?