With a failed marriage behind her, La - short for Lavender - moves to the Suffolk countryside on the eve of the Second World War to nurse her broken heart. Lonely and at a loss, a friend encourages her to bring the villagers and the men from the local airbase together by forming an amateur orchestra. One of her musician recruits is Feliks, a handsome and enigmatic Polish refugee. A friendship begins to blossom between the two, and La finds her feelings stirring to life again. The new stand-alone novel from bestseller Alexander McCall Smith, author of The No.1 Ladies' Detective Agency series.