Agnes is thirty and lives with her two aunts in a crumbling but historically rich house, which she has just inherited.
Her work as a documentary maker sees her attempting to help save a farmer's proficient farm which is in the pipeline to be re-developed as a housing estate. Between the now desperate, frustrated farmer and an astute businessman who has come to survey Agnes's house, she finds herself slowly falling for both of them, and they for her. The farmer and his hard-working wife are having relationship issues and the businessman has a staunch mistress who devotes her life to looking appealing just for him.

This was an unusual book - the writing, which is sophisticated, reads like a much earlier era. The sentences are dainty but they are not overly gushy. Sentimentality is actually restrained in this book. Thoughts are not forced upon readers, instead the author writes with a broad expanse of phrases and general opinions that are not easy to dissect. Only the last few chapters read easier.
I am glad I gave this book a second try (I had started it a few years ago) as it is to be commended for its uniqueness in mixing a bit of modern with age-old flair.