When Iris Chisholm arrives in the tiny Highland community of Green Cairns, she's still in a state of shock - not so much from her husband's untimely death as from the discovery that he'd gambled away all their money and even their home. In addressing the problems of the children at the school where she becomes the only teacher, Iris finds distraction from her worries. Further distractions come in the shape of golden-tongued lawyer Michael and the gentle handyman, Chas. The locals are deliciously outraged at the scandal of a school marm who seems to have a sex life, and alarmed yet heartened at her championing of her pupils' needs, from swimming lessons to kinder dentistry. So embroiled is Iris that she does not notice what is happening to her own near-adult children - who need her just as much as the waifs of Green Cairns.