Following on from her two previous family archives, the first being her grandmother’s memoir, Madeleine Manning, feeling duty-bound to prolong the family line, tells her own story. Spurning the advances of a rich and famous pop star, she leaves her home in Cornwall to spend the month of August in Connemara with Bridie O’Malley and her family. There, in his island retreat, she meets the artist who is to become the love of her life. However, there are reasons why they should not seek to pursue their relationship, as she finds out to her shock and dismay when she drives him to Galway one day to buy artists’ materials. 

Can Maddie realise her dream of prolonging the family line in time for the gathering of the clans on the grand occasion planned for the celebration of Bridie’s eightieth birthday the following year?