With husband Tim stationed in Egypt and her children at boarding school, Hester Christie —affectionately known as 'Mrs Tim' and based loosely on D. E. Stevenson herself — finds herself at a loose end, until her friend Grace takes her at her word and finds her a job with the formidable Erica Clutterbuck, who has opened a new hotel in the Scottish Borders. Once there, Hester's initial ambivalence disappears in a swirl of problems and situations with hotel guests and old friends alike, including serving as fortune teller at the local fête and aiding and abetting romantic schemes, not to mention the reappearance of the debonair Tony Morley.