To say Asha West's life was in something of a slump would be a fairly accurate description. Her job wasn't as satisfying as it had been, as she knows it should be, and then there was her failed relationship with her first love. What she desperately needed was a change of scene.

Her family wants her to return home so she applies for and gets a position in Brisbane. With a couple of months before her new job begins she's approached to do some genealogical research, something she really enjoys doing, and she sees this as a sign her life might just be getting back on track. So she takes on a family history research project for the elderly Vivienne Chaseley who wants Asha to prepare a book for her stepson's sixtieth birthday.

The Chaseleys are well known as one of Brisbane's pioneering families and it seems they have found a collection of documents relating to the family's arrival in Brisbane in the 1800s. To work on the Chaseley family history Vivienne suggests Asha moves into Tyneholme, their wonderful old home overlooking the Brisbane River.

Asha is delighted to be working with Vivienne and the only drawback is the attractive, yet aloof, Peri Moyland, the granddaughter of Viv's childhood friend. Asha overhears Peri telling the elderly woman that she thinks it's unwise to take a complete stranger into her home. Peri warns Viv she will definitely be watching Asha, so, attractive or not, Asha knows exactly where she stands with the snobbish and obviously distrustful Peri Moyland. Asha wanted to prove to Peri that she was wrong, and for reasons she didn't want to examine too deeply.

Then Asha makes an exciting discovery that reveals more secrets from the family's past. And an almost earth-shattering one from the not so very distant past.