Easily roused to anger, Seranne Laurence is furious when her mother announces she is to marry the latest in a long line of unsuitable men-friends. She soon realises that she hasn't the right to interfere in her mother's life, but that means she has to leave the Victoria-style tearooms she and her mother run together. Filled with resentment towards her step-father, she moves to the small, Welsh village of Cwm Derw and the cottage called Badgers Brook.There she finds many new friends including Betty and Alun at the Ship and Compass, Babs and Tony at the bakery and many others. Then there is Luke, who laughs at her misfortunes and whose friendship she accepts. It is he, too, who risks his own life to rescue her.