A novel of rural Ireland in the early 1960s, continuing the story of two neighbouring farms and their feuding families begun in Alice Taylor's earlier works. Following his brutish father's unlamented death, young Danny Conway strives to rescue the family farm from ruin, finding help in an unexpected source. Other challenges face the local community, which already has little to offer young people and now it finds that it is threatened with the loss of its school.

The new novel from the bestselling author of The Woman of the House A story of love for the land and of the passions and jealousies it can inspire. A moving story, too, of bereavement and grief. No one knows the warp and weft of country life as Alice Taylor does, and she has a unique ability to capture its rhythms and cadences. Following his brutish father's unlamented death, young Danny Conway strives to rescue the family farm from ruin; when all seems hopeless, help comes from the most unexpected quarter.