When Gretchen decides to spend a year on the south-west coast of Ireland, she knows that she is entering a world quite different from her strict childhood. To Gretchen, Ireland is a country of mystery and rapture. But the dilapidated grandeur of Dufresne Hall begins to challenge her romantic ideals. As the Ireland of myth that she has yearned for is gradually displaced in her mind, she finds a new direction for her feelings in a relationship that surprises and overwhelms her.