From the very first day that they move to the Oddlode Valley, it's inevitable that young teacher Mo Stillitoe, recently separated socialite Diana Lampeter and cool, retired dressage diva Anke Brakespear will find their lives entangled. Despite their differing generations and backgrounds, the women are on a relocation collision course.

As inept removal men deliver furniture - and even horses - to the wrong houses, other moves are being made . . . Mo's bad boy lover takes Diana's eye, Anke's flirtatious husband immediately suggests Mo hops into bed with him - and Diana's local heart-throb brother comes joyfully face to face with the Danish ice-maiden he posted on his wall as a teenager.

As a long, hot Indian summer burns its embers into winter, the newcomers settle into their beautiful frost-hugged surroundings, generating enough heat to melt every heart in Oddlode. New passions ignite and old flames are fanned amid the honeyed villages, enchanted gardens, haunted parkland and raucous country social life. The heat is on, and sparks fly - but is this just a flash in the pan or is somebody fuelling the fire?