Clym Yeobright has returned to the area of Edgon Heath to become a school teacher after a successful but shallow career as a jeweler in Paris. Clym's wife,Eustacia Vye, longs for the excitement of city life and sets off on a reckless affair that ends in death.

Moving to a small country cabin, a once world-famous photographer bonds with a local man and begins to see the world around her in new, deeper dimensions while evaluating second chances at love, career, and self-understanding.

Maeve Binchy has set her fifth novel in contemporary Ireland, in the little midland parish village of Shancarrig. There, a magnificent copper beech tree shades the school yard, its trunk bearing the names of dozens of Shancarrig school children. Each has a story that reveals the passions and dark secrets behind seemingly ordinary lives.

Portrays the closely-intertwined and often troubled lives of residents in the small town as seen through the eyes of Miles Pruitt, a much respected high school teacher.

The unflappable Mrs. Kinky Kincaid is a trusted fixture in the life of the Irish village of Ballybucklebo, and it often seems that she's been there forever. But some forty years before and many miles to the south, she was Maureen O'Hanlon, a precocious farmer's daughter growing up in County Cork. On the cusp of womanhood, Maureen had a head full of dreams, a heart open to romance, and something more: a gift for seeing into the mystic realm ...

The villagers of Turnham Malpas are in for a shock. With Sir Ralph now dead, his fortune and title go to a newcomer. It swiftly becomes clear that Johnny Templeton could not be more different to his well-loved predecessor. Johnny soon finds himself in conflict with long-standing members of Turnham Malpas - particularly Craddock Fitch who is determined to obstruct Johnny's plan to buy back the Templeton estate. Meanwhile, there are two other villagers...