Rural craft is no match for the onward march of modern finance in this captivating portrayal of a farm family trapped by forces beyond their comprehension. In 1950, two brothers and a sister inherit a faltering farm in Devon. They take a mortgage to install a modern milking parlor, only to be hit by a disease that decimates their herd. The younger son wants the others to buy his share of the encumbered farm so he can marry and escape from the family's dreary existence. The sister, a woman obsessed with tradition, ritual and maintaining dead ideals, foils his dreams. Thirty years later, the devastating aftermath of regrets and missed opportunities is heart breakingly apparent.