Nineteen-year-old Gwendolyn Hooper is newly married to a rich and charming widower eager to join him on his tea plantation determined to be the perfect wife and mother. But life in Ceylon is not what Gwen expected. The plantation workers are resentful the neighbors are treacherous. And there are clues to the past - a dusty trunk of dresses an overgrown gravestone in the grounds - that her husband refuses to discuss. Just as Gwen finds her feet disaster strikes. She faces a terrible choice hiding the truth from almost everyone but a secret this big cant stay buried forever ...