Alone and penniless on a remote Mediterranean island, Andrea Donnelly finds herself freed by widowhood from a disastrous marriage, but still bound by emotional trauma. A job as cook at the secluded Villa Verdon offers her a chance to rebuild her shattered self-esteem. But there the owner, Matthew Carleton, a charismatic British TV-producer, stirs in her burning passions she's never known. Does he intend to destroy her fragile defenses... or save her with his strong embrace?