Clio is staying with her aunt, Hester, at Bridge House on the edge of Exmoor. A beautiful, remote house, where the sound of the rushing stream is never far distant, is the scene of many happy childhood memories, and Clio has no idea that it was the setting for a terrible incident after the second world war. She only - gradually - learns the truth when she meets Jonah, whose mother Lucy spent time at Bridge House as a child. Lucy has never spoken about her life there, and only Hester remembers that tragic day when innocence turned to tragedy. Hester's beloved elder brother, Ed, had come to live at Bridge House to recover from his time as a prisoner of war. His best friend from Cambridge, Michael, had also come to the house with his daughter Lucy - Lucy's mother had died in an air raid. There, in the fevered wartime atmosphere, passions ran high, culminating in an accident which affected all their lives, and only now can Clio and Jonah learn the truth.