Grieving widow, Kay Partridge and her daughter Evie, unable to face the oncoming Christmas festivities, move into a cottage at majestic Wintergill Farm in the Yorkshire Dales. Kay wants to shut the door and forget about everything. Evie, struggling to come to terms with the concept of death, just wants her Daddy to come home for Christmas.

But Wintergill is far from the quiet refuge that they expected. Devastated by Foot and Mouth, Nik Snowden and his Mother Nora are facing a bleak future. The two are at loggerheads. Nora has had enough of the hard life but Nik wants to keep the house and lands that have been in his family for generations.