Ethan Mercer, an executive from a New York advertising agency, inherits a Cornish cottage. Alone in the world since the death of his wife, he decides to travel to England to visit his cottage. Unfortunately the idyllic dream isn't as it seems. The cottage is a wreck. However, Ethan conquers boardrooms in a hub of the commercial world so this Cornish village shouldn't prove too difficult to control in comparison. But he doesn't take into account the Cornish knotty attitude to outsiders and change. He finally has an opportunity to prove himself during the Brea Day village fete and begins training the tug-of-war team. They've lost eighteen years in a row to Camborne but this year Ethan is going to change all that, if he can only convince them he's worth their effort. With all the difficulties he faces as a foreigner in a strange land, he knows winning the games, winning the heart of a complicated woman, and winning against a potential thief, isn't everything, it's THE ONLY THING