Cass falls instantly in love with Corrie Cottage, the small house perched on a grassy ledge of hillside on the borders of the Riach estate. And when Guy suggests that they take it on as a wedding present to each other, she leaps at the chance; maybe it will set the seal on their marriage as the wedding and honeymoon had failed to do.

But it is not long before Cass finds that the more time she spends in Scotland, the less she sees of Guy. And as she becomes increasingly involved with the lives of her neighbours - Gina, struggling with domestic chaos and a recalcitrant teenage daughter; socially competitive Beverley and her enigmatic husband Rick - Cass finds her loyalties shifting inexorably from London, and Guy, to Glen Maraich - and her new friends.