The two Fraser cousins shared everything as boys, but when Martin inherits the family estate, Jim is left with nothing. He lives an embittered existence in a small cottage on the edge of the village, feared and shunned by the whole community. When Rosemary Boxer witnesses his apparent suicide by drowning there is a general feeling of relief amongst the local people. While Laura and Rosemary restore Martin Fraser's Elizabethan garden, assisted by a group of prisoners on day release, the question of Jim's death becomes increasingly complicated. Did he really kill himself? Is he really dead at all, wonders Rosemary, having discovered evidence suggesting that he might not be. Martin's behaviour is increasingly puzzling, too. Is he still involved with Gwynne, his boyhood sweetheart? And how does her daughter Fern fit into the picture? And then there is the Stevens family, who do have some very exotic interests...The action rises to a dramatic climax centred on the river where Jim drowned. History seems intent on repeating itself, with Rosemary and Laura both in danger from a desperate man. Emotions run high to the last, fuelling a story of deceit, misunderstanding and injustice.