Flavia Pollard was chef-patronne of an acclaimed bistro south of the Thames- but a bistro now closing its doors. Her life thus far has been a melange of satisfaction and disappointment. Her career as a successful restaurant owner has given her wondrous fulfillment but her soul has been wounded. In turn, by a husband who ruled her and a lover who used her. Now, nearing forty, having been parted from both restaurant and lover, she must choose a new direction. It comes to her in the form of a gorgeous, dilapidated irresistible old home in Cornwall which she is given the chance to transform into a country inn. She can accomplish the transformation of the estate into inn with gourmet restaurant, she has little doubt. That she can thrive in a relationship with a new man- one Tom Faull, a good-hearted, cranky Cornwall scalawag-philosopher- she simply doesn't know. What she will discover in this beautifully crafted novel is that the answers will come, unforced, with time.