In 12th Century England, Guillame Mareschal is an old soldier whose family have held Herraton Bonville since the conquest. 40 years earlier, during the Anarchy of Stephen, his father Ralphe sustained a fatal wound. Guillame, ageing and uneasy, embarks on an expedition for revenge and the truth. In the mid 19th Century, Herton Home Farm is occupied by the Digweed family. William, head of the family, has moved on from his humble past. But social advancement is under threat from the relationship between his eldest daughter and a boatman called Jago. 1999, and Pete Florence is a landscape gardener facing hardship who lands the job of reconstructing the garden and grounds at the old Herton Home Farm in the nick of time. Tony Cawsand is a local archaealogist whose interest in the large mound in the grounds leads to he and Florence having to work side by side. Cawsand has an adopted daughter, Joanne, a strange balkan refugee. Florence is fascinated.