When her partner Jack, with whom she's been travelling, drowns on the beach in Sri Lanka, Roma returns to her family in Cornwall and retreats into the arms of orchid- lover Will Trant, Head Gardener on the Russell family estate of Trescombe. Here Roma begins work on illustrations for a new edition of the 1887 Journal of another Head Gardener: the Victorian, Henry Dodson. Still struggling with her grief, Roma begins to find solace in the beauty of the great gardens and in her painting. She comes to admire Henry and his work but finds herself increasingly imprisoned in a world peopled with the ghosts of the Russell family and of another drowning. Into this world, filled with echoes of Roma's own tragedy, comes Max Russell, now owner of the estate and boyhood friend of Will. Max is a dark and dangerous planet in whose orbit others find themselves irresistible drawn, and when Roma embarks on a highly-charged and erotic affair with Max, it results in a painful betrayal, which finally forces Roma to flee her self-imposed exile and to truly confront her grief