On their father's death, Jenny and Dahlia Rendall and their mother, Louisa, move across the river to the heights of Upper Radstowe Here they try to make a living by taking in lodgers, but their neighbours eye this all-female household with alarm and distrust - especially when a local farmer takes to calling on Louisa Dahlia takes it all in her stride, but conventional Jenny cannot help being embarrassed by her mother's country ways and longs for a different life