While clearing out the rectory's loft, Reverend Peter Harris makes an unsettling discovery, and a dark secret is exposed that soon sets tongues wagging in the village of Turnham Malpas... Having received a letter from the sons she hasn't heard from in fifteen years, local gossip Greta Jones is delighted at the prospect of seeing them after all this time - despite her husband's misgivings... Meanwhile, Fran Charter-Plackett has a difficult decision to make. Her parents would like to see her settled with kind and reliable Alex Harris. But when Chris Templeton, the man Fran once lost her heart to, returns to the village, it seems he is all set to steal her affections once more. Is Chris really a changed man? And will Fran finally go with her heart, or her head?