Ex TV presenter Holly is struggling to pick up the pieces of her shattered life when she is offered the chance to travel to Moscow to research a new book. That she will also have to look after Dirk Van Allen's five-year-old son, Peter, seems a small price to pay until she meets him and his father.

Locked into a mutually miserable world they both make her life difficult. Determined to find a way into Peter's stony little heart, Holly decides that softening his father's attitude towards her might help. It is only when Dirk sees through her ploy and starts to play her at her own game that she realizes she is way out of her depth.