Londoner Francesca Campbell finds more than she bargained for in the remote Hebridean Island of Cullin, when she chaperons American travel writer Tod Harriman on a research trip for his latest tourist guide - and also helps him trace his family roots.
Encountering Cullin Castle (now a hotel), and its autocratic owner Neil McAlister, in a state of near chaos, Fran offers to help set things straight until his sister returns from the mainland; but Fran's presence brings back painful memories of another southern girl who betrayed McAlister in the past.
Fran herself has no intention of staying in such a forsaken place, and objects to McAlister's high-handed treatment of Tod's book, which he believes will bring in hordes of unwelcome visitors, spoiling his beloved curlew-haunted island for ever. But if he alienates Fran, she will have no compunction in leaving Cullin immediately - which is the last thing Neil McAlister wants to happen.