When Bea s husband dies, she decides not to be a lonely widow, rattling around her big Oxford house. Instead, she chooses three tenants, each of whom needs her help, and each, in return, offers Bea more affection than her own son. Over the years they become a strange family , until the day they must find a new housemate. Will needs a place to stay, and expects the usual grimy kitchen and sloppy students. Bea s beautiful house seems too good to be true until he meets the housemates. They re all at least twenty years older than him, and range from being outrageously camp to irritatingly raucous. Will takes the stunning spare room, and once he s moved in it s hard to escape. His sister, Harrie, falls in love with more than just the house when she comes to visit, and together they re soon caught up in Bea s final secret