The past is never far away. When Cate Rivers leaves her husband in the middle of the night with their young daughter, Eliza, she has no idea what the future holds. Taking a live-in position at Hollow House on the Dorset coast, she determines to make a new life for her and Eliza. But Cate's new boss, fossil hunter Charles Thorner, could do without the problems of a couple of runaways under his roof...