It has been an idyllic summer, Tess reflects, as she packs up the Cornish holiday home in preparation for plunging back into the cold reality of normal life. An idyllic summer, and there will be more - so why does she feel awash with a nameless fear about returning home?...

It\"s time to start thinking the unthinkable... Carrie Adams, successful television producer, mother and wife, is about to return to work. Baby Tom has fallen in love with the new nanny; six-year-old Rebecca isn\"t too keen, but hopes the nanny will at least be better organised than Mummy....

Three couples, friends and neighbours... Tom, lazy and charming, looks after the children and thinks about writing a novel while his ambitious wife Sarah pursues her career as a journalist.Nat is married to the unstylish Cassie, who spends her life in jodhpurs, but although an ill-matched couple they have a strong and enduring marriage....