The setting is a village in the fictional Welm Valley. A river flows nearby but has changed course in recent times. How are the people who live nearby affected by this, and all the other changes taking place in their lives, community and landscape.

Chapter by chapter we're introduced to a different resident. A doctor, a builder, a farmer. A woman who falls while out on a walk through the woodland and who, lying, waiting to be found before nightfall, has time to ponder her life's decisions. And a woman who, living alone and receiving bad news, is forced to look again at her family's past mistakes and to think about how things might be in the future. 

It's a book about change, and also about the timeless beauty of the natural world. And it's about how we care for our environment and our community.

It's a beautifully told story where each chapter's character study is delicately linked to another, making one coherent and powerful account of the life of a village. Loved it.