The course of true love never did run smooth, as the Prior's Ford villagers are beginning to discover. The once-failing Tarbethill Farm is facing a happier future thanks to Alison Greenlees but Ewan McNair doesn't see himself as the sort of husband Alison deserves, while at Linn Hall the return of famous actress Meredith Whitelaw is bad news for her daughter Ginny, anxious to catch the eye of the son of the house. And Thatcher's Cottage is now home to Dr Malcolm Finlay, a retired university academic with a secret ability to turn the hearts and heads of almost all the women in the village . . .