Synopsis

Maria Petrova, daughter of a murdered dissident writer, flees Alborus, a repressive East European country, to seek refuge in
Britain. After a harrowing journey in the hands of people-traffickers, she stays with distant relatives in Bradford and applies for asylum but, after months of delay, this is refused. Fearing deportation, and not legally employable, she journeys, mostly on foot, to Wharfedale, strongly attracted by pictures of that part of Yorkshire..
She arrives, exhausted and undernourished, at Wildwood House, a college offering leisure courses for adults. Its principal, Claire Martindale, gives Maria accommodation in exchange for gardening. Maria makes good friends at the college, enjoys country walks, and forms a sincere attachment with Hugh Armstrong, a lecturer. But anxiety about her situation, and a crisis in Hugh’s family, lead to misunderstanding and a narrowly averted tragedy.
Claire’s talented gap-year twins and her unpredictable husband, together with the bluff Lord Ploughdon, enrich the novel.

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