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He is a respectable pillar of London society who yearns for an idyllic existence away from the noise and the smoke. She feels hemmed in by the confines of an isolated fishing village and dreams of the bright lights, and even brighter people, of the great metropolis. On a hot August day in 1883, Clement Scott, the writer, and Louie Jermy, the miller's daughter, meet each other for the first time.

It is the Easter holidays at Gorse Park Preparatory School. Everyone has gone home except four elderly members of staff and young Paul Blake, the orphaned son of the former headmaster. The weather is beautiful, the countryside is lovely, but all is far from peaceful as the adults quarrel and Paul grows up.