Roma is a young artist, in love with Jack. Together they travel to India and Sri Lanka in search of their exotic island paradise but when tragedy befalls them and her lover Jack drowns on the beach in Hikkaduwa, Roma is forced to return to her mother's home in Cornwall.

Locked in her grief she escapes the house and despite the winter takes off across the fields, always avoiding the sea. Instead she walks inland to the great Trescombe estate and through the jungle valley where she played as a child, where she can be alone with her thoughts and with her love for Jack.

When Roma meets an old friend who introduces her to Will Trant orchid- lover and Head Gardener on the Trescombe Estate Roma finds herself drawn to his gentle calm. Before long she retreats into Will's arms and his house on the estate and begins work on illustrations for the 1887 Journal of Henry Dodson Head Gardener, which tells of life in the thriving Victorian garden that served the great Russell family.

Roma quickly grows to love Trescombe and its gardens as they become her escape from the world. She photgraphs them in all weathers, their secret places, their orchids, their glasshouses, their exotic fruits and all the time, despite Will's kindness she stays locked in her love of Jack, remembering their life together.

But the world of Trescombe is peopled with the ghosts of the Russell family and when Max Russell, childhood friend of Will, and now owner of the estate returns to Trescombe the gardens are no longer a safe haven but are filled with his dark presence and ghostly echoes of Roma's tragedy. A tragedy that she is finally only able to confront when she embarks on a dangerous and erotic affair which culminates in betrayal and forces her to flee her self- imposed exile.

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