Anna can cope with gardens, especially the historic ones it's her job to research, but when it comes to love and relationships she has lost her way, following the collapse of her short-lived marriage. Then she meets Oliver, destined to inherit a magical eighteenth-century house and garden from his ageing grandmother, and a man who, unlike her, is more interested in the future than the past. But is Oliver's interest in Anna entirely straightforward, or does he have a secret agenda? Will, the gardener, claims he has, but then Will has secrets of his own, and a past as mysterious as the garden he looks after. As Anna gradually deciphers the secret history of the garden, she realises that only by learning to read the messages will she find a way through the wilderness to the hidden heart at the centre, and discover where her own future happiness lies.