On a summer's day in 1955, in the village of Starome, the drowned body of young Danny Masters is discovered by three of his teenage friends: Alexander, the volatile heir to Richmond Hall, the country estate that neighbours Starome, and sister and brother, Lennie and Tom, whose father is land agent to the Richmond family. How did Danny Masters die? 'Child of nature' Lennie is in love with volatile Alexander, but is he in love with her or merely playing with her? Alexander's mother has been a widow for less than a year, and yet her husband's brother seems always to be by her side. In the weeks that follow the tragic drowning, the river begins to give up its secrets. As the circumstances surrounding Danny's death emerge, other stories gradually come to the surface, threatening to destroy an entire way of life.