The third Barsetshire novel is a sparkling 1930s English romantic comedy. Impecunious Mary Preston, newly arrived as a guest of her Aunt Agnes at the magnificent wooded estate of Rushwater, falls head over heels for handsome playboy David Leslie. Meanwhile, Agnes and her mother, the eccentric matriarch Lady Emily, have hopes of a different, more suitable match for Mary.

Jane lives in Toronto with her mother and grandmother. Then one day her father sends for her -- Jane didn't even know she had a father -- to come and visit him on Prince Edward Island. And no-one, not even her mother, has ever talked to her about him.