Elfrida Swann, 'Freddie', a struggling portrait painter, is about to marry Alex Moncrieff, a successful barrister. Preparations for the great day, arranged with magnificent extravagance by her smart stepmother in the hope of inciting bitterest envy among her acquaintances, are on schedule. Then, two days before the wedding, Freddie decides that she cannot go through with the marriage. She runs away to Drop Cottage in Dorset, lent to her by a friend. At first sight, its state of dilapidation is so extreme that Freddie feels she cannot possibly stay. But rapidly she falls under the spell of its idiosyncratic charms -- and events conspire to detain her.