Abigail Beadle has given two decades of her life to caring for her late father and looking after the centuries old family home Ashgrove House. She has never married because Lucas Chadwick, the man she loved when she was young, left the village suddenly with his family. When her loathed stepmother dies Abigail is glad to be released from the woman's nagging and bullying, but the will she left casts doubt on Abigail's inheritance. It is not until Lucas returns to the village, and helps to get to the bottom of the complicated situation, that Abigail begins to believe her life might be able to start at last.