Hester Fielding's life is the stuff of drama: a bleak Yorkshire childhood transformed by the discovery of her amazing gift as a dancer, a dangerous love affair that can only lead to heartbreak, and a secret that would topple her from her pinnacle of fame if it ever came out. Now Hester has returned to Yorkshire, to Wychwood, where each year at Christmas, a ballet is performed on Twelfth Night in the little theatre. This year, the brilliant young choreographer Hugo Carradine has been invited to direct the ballet Sarabande. Claudie Drake is Hugo's lover and the ballet's star--every inch a prima ballerina in style--but is she just a little past her best?