Emily Harris finds out there's a fine line between the present and the past, and there is an equally fine line that separates people in the world. She's recently divorced and over the objections of her estranged mother Elaine, Emily decides to renews her relationship with her exotic grandmother Eleanor. Her elegant and proper grandmother has a passion she wishes to imbue in Emily—but Eleanor dies before the mystery is revealed in full. But she leaves Emily an important clue: a small hand-loomed tapestry, possibly made by an distant English relative.

Emily ends up in the Welsh Marches and discovers a branch of her family kept secret by her grandmother and a mysterious neighbor. With the aid of her newfound relatives, she searches for the keys to solving the mystery of the tapestry.