Gabriella has many siblings and more animals. Her father is an impoverished poet, her mother a classicist. This is the story of Gabriella and her brothers, and their unorthodox childhood in this wayward family.
Venetia Summers appears to lead a fairytale rural existence with her husband and two sons in her tumbledown Norfolk cottage. But when her husband walks out on them, not even the arrival of a new baby can make up for the sense of loss she feels.