Patience Dunn's final novel is the story of a great estate in the North West highlands of Scotland in the period between 1922 and the 1980's. The central character Linnet MacDonald, is taken to Glengarrion when she is seven years old and raised with her two cousins, James, sixteen years her senior, and his step-brother Rory, who is just three years older. Sibling rivalry and jealousy surface between the step-brothers when both grow to love her. Linnet loves Rory and from childhood, they plan to marry and devote their lives to restoring the decaying estate. But when old MacDonald dies, his Will follows the tradition of 'eldest son to eldest son' and it is James, now an Oxford don, who inherits Glengarrion. When Rory bargains with him for a share of the property, a furious row develops. Rory leaves home determined to buy out his step-brother. Under James's direction the estate deteriorates until Linnet takes over the management. Whilst waiting for Rory's return, she struggles, to turn Glengarrion into a profitable concern. In 1939 war is declared and Glengarrion is swept into uncertainty and change.