Like his father before him, Orlando Manners chooses a bride whose sudden arrival totally disrupts the lives of those closest to him. Orlando marries Lindy on a whim, and brings her home to The Cottage at Laybridge, the Wiltshire estate where he spent his damaged childhood. Lindy, obsessed with her career and unashamedly viewing her marriage as a means to an end, is quite different from other women who feel they have a claim on him - his godmother Victoria, who brought him up following his mother's tragic death; and his childhood friend Rose, daughter of Laybridge's cook and gamekeeper who, unkown to Orlando, has always worshipped him.