When Marianne LePatourel meets William Ozanne in the 1830s on an island in the English Channel, she sets her heart on him. However, her sister Marguerite falls in love with him too. And so begins this sweeping novel that takes the characters on dramatic adventures from childhood through old age, on land and at sea, and from the Channel Islands to China to the New Zealand frontier. When William's naval career is cut short, he settles in New Zealand...

Mary Lindsay met her little cousin and namesake only once, but she saw in the quiet, imaginative child a kindred spirit to inherit her ancient house. Fifty years later the younger Mary inherited the house with no knowledge of it beyond her indelible childhood memories, and no experience at all of living in the country.

Despite the crinkled pink petals strewn in the path of those who would have preferred red, four generations of Eliots have survived the War and are moving forward. The familys remarkable matriarch Lucilla is still with them, though shes facing the dark night of the soul. All is turned on its head with the arrival of Sebastian, another survivor of WWII. He has a story far more painful than any of the Eliots. While with them, he wrestles with questions...

Thirteen-year-old orphan Maria Merryweather is sent away to live with her eccentric uncle, Sir Benjamin at the mysterious Manor. Although crumbling apart, the Manor and the surrounding lands are a place of magic and wonderment, and before long Maria finds herself a part of an ancient feud with the sinister De Noir family.