It is high summer in the Cotswolds and newly-wed Maggie Eliot would be enjoying the season more if only she were less stressed out. There is the book she is writing whose deadline is approaching. There is the project of creating a database of the plantings in the gardens of her husband Thomas' estate she is trying to finish in time for his birthday. There is the imminent descent of two of Thomas' children from his first marriage for a summer holiday in the country. And finally there is her nagging feeling that Thomas really ought to meet her family back in her native Boston and vice versa....