In helping others achieve happiness, will she find hers at last? Even four months after Sir Charles Napier's death, his widow, Madeleine, is finding it hard to free herself from his lingering domination. She still maintains the oppressive lifestyle he had ordained, which had finally driven her children from their large and remote Scottish home. Then Madeleine becomes aware of people who need her: her betrayed daughter Lisa; her son, Archie, with his plans for the estate and the problems of his foundering marriage; a friend at a crossroads in her life; an abandoned child and an unwanted baby. In meeting these challenges Madeleine discovers self-confidence and independence, and a new beginning at the heart of a wider, happier family in a transformed Drumveyn.