In 1984, a pregnant Irish girl tries to contact her boyfriend in British prison but her letters are not allowed through to him because she writes in Irish.

Refusing to succumb to old age, Tom Ballard and Diana Trent are a pair of seasoned delinquents that cause many headaches. Their uneasy alliance is destined to make life difficult at the Bayview Retirement Village.

A widowed teacher marries again, but her hopes of her daughter accepting a stepfather her own age, and her anticipation of a birthday picnic by the river are clouded by a series of murders in the district and by a fear rooted rather nearer home.

Finn's story seems to begin when Henry Kirk comes into the bookshop where she works. But it goes back a lot further than that...