It's a summer's day in 1953 that turns Hilary Napier's life upside-down. When Marianne, a beautiful French woman, knocks on her door, Hilary can't help but be struck by Robert, the young boy with her. He has the same eyes as the brother she lost in the war. As she listens to Marianne's sad tale, she realises her soldier-brother lives on the in the son he never met. But this is only the first revelation...As the village of Burracombe tries to make sense of the strangers in their midst, there is also much to celebrate. A wedding is being planned, a birth is imminent and a courtship just beginning. Yet as always, life is complicated and some people must learn cruel truths about the world. Hilary has her friends to turn to as she tries to find out the facts about her brother's past. But it's her future she worries about - now there's a new Napier in the village, and if Robert is the heir to Burracombe, where does that leave Hilary? And is this young boy ready for all that it means? Lilian Harry takes her readers on another wonderful journey through the lives of characters old and new - all of which feel like friends by the novel's end.