Hester Fielding was once the leading ballerina of her day. Her life is the stuff of drama: a bleak Yorkshire childhood transformed by the discovery of her amazing gifts as a dancer; a dangerous love affair that can only lead to heartbreak; and a secret that would topple her from her pinnacle of fame if it ever came out.

Now Hester has returned to Yorkshire, to Wychwood where, each year at Christmas, a ballet is performed on Twelfth Night in the little theatre there.This year, the brilliant young choreographer Hugo Carradine has been invited to direct the ballet Sarabande. Claudia Drake is Hugo's lover and the ballet's star - every inch a prima ballerina in style, but is she just a little past her best?