This is a family drama in a series of four books, featuring Gwen, the third of the four Purcell sisters. Unlike the others, she has stayed at home all her life, tending the large Hillcrest garden and pursuing her artistic endeavours. On the surface, it's a life of unruffled calm, a calm behind which Gwen can hide from the hurt and disappointment of her past and avoid the problems of the present. The unexpected, and unwelcome, gift of a collection of orchids is the first event to shatter that calm, followed by the arrival of the volatile Tony, which in turn leads her to accept, against her instincts, an invitation to visit an unknown orchid grower in Germany. It is 1936, the Nazis are in power and, forced beyond the sheltering boundaries of the orchid house, Gwen has to face the tough realities of the modern world. The story, as with its three companion books, blends the lives and loves of the sisters with major historic events.