To all appearances, Isobel and Giles Grant have it all: happily married, with two adored children, and a glorious house in Scotland, they are about to fulfil a lifetime's dream by launching the Glendrochatt Arts Centre. The perfect life, it would seem. But beneath the surface, there are cracks which threaten to destabilize everything they've worked for. While their daughter Amy is bright and talented, her twin Edward is "different" -- nobody knows quite what Edward is. And Giles's talent for manipulation occasionally threatens to provoke even sunny Isobel.

When Isobel's elder sister, Lorna, returns from South Africa -- and an unhappy marriage -- to take up residence at Glendrochatt, the cracks widen. For Lorna was once Giles's lover, and she's determined to take him back. The scars of a difficult childhood run deep in Lorna, and watching Isobel live the life she had planned for herself is almost unbearable. The situation is further complicated by the arrival of Daniel, an undeniably talented but mysterious artist to whom both sisters are drawn. It seems as if the Grants might be thrown irrevocably off balance.