Farmer's wife, Kate, has gone on a week-long painting course in Provence. It is the first time her husband, children father and animals have tried to cope without her, the first time she has been on the loose without them. What will happen while she's away? What will happen when she coes back? In some ways Sarah Challis's novels are reminiscent of Joanna Trollope, in others of Rosamunde Pilcher, but the very special mixture of warmth, humour and intelligence with which she unfolds her stories is in the end uniquely her own.