On the gentle banks of the Gironde the vendange engages the entire community. They labour furiously to serve an ancient English family, the Cunninghams, whose magnificent vintages can sell for hundreds of pounds. Cecilia Harman, struggling to discover her vocation, works the sweltering fields from the fresh promise of dawn until the exhausted sun sets. Then, her limbs aching, her skin burning, she enjoys the raucous company of her fellow vendangeurs...