Good fortune seemed to smile at last on Emma Barcombe and an exciting new freedom was about to unfold when she came to live and work on a small journal in the delightful West Country village of Clevedon. But the armour she had been forced to build as her only defence from earliest childhood was not easily put aside, and at first she needed it - particularly when obliged to come in more frequent contact with the cynical hard young man who was Paul Amberly. In their different ways both Paul and Emma were casualties needing time to heal, time in which to misunderstand each other sorely, but eventually time to come together in complete trust and love.