Continuing Nicola Thorne's acclaimed series about a Dorset family which began with The Broken Bough and continued with The Blackbird's Song In 1926 Peg Hallam is engaged to a man who has long admired her, but whom she is not quite sure she loves. Potentially, this would seem to be a recipe for disaster, and indeed the cracks begin to show during the General Strike in May, which Peg actively participates in. She is unexpectedly thrown into violent contact with an opponent who is none other than Hubert Ryland, heir to her stepfather's employer, Lord Ryland - and someone she has long and secretly felt attracted to. The resulting complications and the effect on her family and Hubert's family brings her close to the water's edge.