London lawyer Owen Lockhart inherited a distant uncles grand but run-down Cornish coastal estate and moves in with the intent to sell it. Senior constable Maxwell Brecketts wife Adele, his late uncles secretary, hopes to change Owens mind by rallying local clients and hiring as cook foxy local agricultural engineer Holly Heston, fatherless boarding school pupil Tobys single mother. Shes in love with constable Lucas Corbin, the only one into whom she confided a grim family secret, but he finds out about her fast-budding affair with Owen.