In 1958, in a small Devon village, two children, playing in a boat on the river, are drowned Their parents, Isabel and Robert, are distraught but remain in the village, living together yet estranged, for the next thirty years One summer's day, Anna arrives She comes to the village to escape her own disappointments She does not tell anyone that she is pregnant Anna goes to live with Isabel, and for a time the women find solace in each other's company But the baby's arrival opens old wounds leading, inexorably, to tragedy