Edie Fisher, a Londoner, is the domestic mainstay of Cedar Green, a village in the Cotswolds She lives in a small cottage with her daughter, Mandy, who also works as a cleaner at Ledsham House, home of the beautiful but petulant Lady Ledsham and her handsome husband, Sir Robert As the local solicitor, widower John Paynter - like Edie - has an insight into the lives of many of the village's inhabitants In Rome, the enigmatic Graziella Massini has plans to come to England, and settle in the village Both bring change in their wake, and the calm surface of life in Cedar Green is ruffled