When Eleanor sets off for lunch in a seaside pub one glorious September day, she has no idea that her world is about to be turned upside down. Divorced, and having taken early retirement from a glamorous career in London, she is enthusiastic about the prospect of making a fresh start and enjoying the gentler pace of life in the country seeking out new friends. The ensuing near-fatal car crash changes everything. Confined to hospital for several weeks, and facing a long convalescence, the fiercely independent Eleanor must reluctantly learn to rely on others. Her daughter Alex, starting out on her own career and caught up in a tempestuous relationship, returns home to care for her mother. Under the most difficult of circumstances, the two women - never close - are forced to reassess what they mean to each other, and to those around them.