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Ezra and Sheena Pepin live in Blenheim Orchard in North Oxford with their three children: 14 year-old Blaise, entering the storm-world of adolescence, Hector, 11 and precociously clever, and sweet Louie, three years-old and the family tyrant. Ezra, a benignly disaffected employee at Isis Water, has abandoned his calling as an anthropologist; Sheena has inadvertently found hers running a travel company. They are like everyone else: over-worked, worried about the children, trying to steer their marriage on an even keel. But change comes knocking at the Pepins' door. Ezra is asked to head a bold new campaign at his workplace that could jump-start his stagnant career; Sheena in the meantime has an idea that she believes will refresh and renew her family. Meanwhile, Blaise takes her first, heady steps into the adult world of sex and desire. The Pepin family will never be quite the same again.

Set in a small town in the middle of England in the aftermath of World War II, this is the story of ambitious industrialist Charles Freeman, his wife Mary, and their three children. Each individual plays his or her part as Britain claws its way from the grey austerity of the war years. Selected for World Book Day 2003 - England.