Feeling a fish out of water in the London home where her stepmother was remorsely driving her father up the ladder of success, Charlotte escaped to a post as a secretary-companion at Heronsbridge. Here was the kind of country life she loved. Her employer, Edwina Staverton, was a delightful personality, but towards the rest of the family, especially Mike, the son making stern efforts to get the place on its feet again, Charlotte had very mixed feelings. She had set out to prove her independence - and found something more lasting.

In her position as secretary-companion, she finds herself intimately involved in a household where the stresses and strains of family rivalry come all too often to the surface. She is also puzzled – and perhaps a little excited – by a growing but totally unfamiliar feeling for the eldest son, Mike, when his personality – hard-driving, brusque, seemingly unsentimental – should have dictated a different reaction in her altogether.

Two dominant, dissident brothers had come home .... each determined to have his own way ... each claiming some measure of loyalty from Charlotte, who soon found that loving means commitment - for better or worse.