A female narrator looks back on her childhood in a coming-of-age novel set before the First World War. Ruan is an intelligent and imaginative child, who gradually comes to understand the nuances of the adult world around her, as she moves from the Manse, under the strict rule of her father, a non-conformist minister, to Cobbetts, her mother's ancestral home, under the tutelage of her Uncle Alaric, and back to the guardianship of Rosie Day at Bolton House high up on the moor above the town where she was born. Her young life is shaped by a series of tragedies, but also the warmth of enduring friendships, particularly with David, her dearest friend who shares her love of the wild expanse and colours of the moor.

Dorothy Evelyn Smith (1893-1969) began her writing career penning short stories and articles for English magazines during the First World War in which her husband was serving. She began her first novel in 1939, and through the years of the Second World War her writing was often interrupted by war work.