Sarah Hallam's last term at University was wrecked by her conviction that she had a stalker, although nobody would take her seriously. After her finals, she takes refuge with her novelist cousin Paddy, who believes in both the stalker and Sarah's fears.

Sarah takes a temporary job as a groom at Swallowfield Grange, a competition and livery yard in Derbyshire, owned by glamorous event rider Gussie Stanton and her husband Oliver. Sarah's job proves to be much more than a groom in many ways.

The advent of Gussie's handsome nephew, Tim Walters, and his string of event horses, upsets Sarah's new found equilibrium, while Tim appears to barely notice her existence, until her safety is threatened, when he acts with uncharacteristic and surprising gallantry.