The summer of 1957 is the happiest of times for Clare Hamilton, despite a recent loss. She will shortly embark on her final year at Queens University, Belfast, and she is engaged to marry Andrew Richardson, the young man she has known and loved throughout her teenage years. Together they plan for a future which will take them far beyond the green hills of Ulster. Andrew has always wanted to farm and Clare is happy to find a teaching job wherever they can find land to develop. But when their hopes and dreams are shattered by a family tragedy, Clare finds herself taking the Liverpool boat alone, to a new destination in Paris, and to a life of glamour, travel and excitement that the orphan Clare, growing up in a house by the forge, surrounded by orchards, damp meadows and low green hills, could never have imagined. Yet there is a part of Clare that will never forget Andrew, nor the beloved landscape of her childhood.