It has been an idyllic summer, Tess reflects, as she packs up the Cornish holiday home in preparation for plunging back into the cold reality of normal life. An idyllic summer, and there will be more - so why does she feel awash with a nameless fear about returning home?

Alone at the holiday cottage for one last night with her young daughter - Mark and the boys have already returned home to London - she has the time, and the silence, to take stock of her life. A life, which, on the surface, has everything a woman could want. So why, now the children are growing up, does she want more? The dramatic decision she takes that night sets her off on a quite new journey - but one for which she may need the courage to travel alone...