A well-known writer from the early 1950s, Bertrand Dawlish was admired especially for the series of novels entitled The Holly House Saga. Growing up sharing his father with the public had been difficult enough for his youngest son without being expected to follow him as a writer. Denying any ability in that direction, for over twelve years Hal Dawlish has forged a different career in the north of England. But in spring 1984, he is abruptly jolted out of his accustomed routine, first by an unlooked for consequence of work he had undertaken, and then by disturbing news about the world he had grown up in.

Disconcertingly, a book compiled from pieces he had written for his firm about which villages worked best as a community has had a surprising success. He thinks gloomily that this is likely to attract his father,
He will say ‘What did I tell you?’ even though it is not a novel!
Before the second catastrophe he had laughed at the idea of writing a second book about how, possibly influenced by William Morris, foundations had been formed uniting like-minded practitioners of arts and crafts, but when his life takes a different direction, he takes this more seriously.

Among other things, during the next few months, he finds himself researching a community started in the late 1860s, called Oakenfield, which came to an abrupt end in 1937. At the same time, he is tracing the background of his illustrious father. Surely there is no connection between the two?