Charlotte Dean's disappointments in love and life have piled up over the years, until she finds herself living in a dour London flat and deriving a semblance of contentment from her job at a small private library - even though it means shutting her heart away. But when circumstances compel her to return home to the countryside to care for her niece, she is fearful of the tasks required of her, and what it will mean to open her heart once more. Can she meet the challenges ahead, and heal her loneliness, as she builds a life for herself and young Clementina?.