Young schoolteacher Amelia Gray always dreamed of her own home with a fireplace and a cozy garden. When she got the chance to move into an old cottage in the suburbs of London, she was overjoyed. But anticipation soon gave way to sadness. Because of the move, Amelia lost her favorite job and had a serious quarrel with her husband, teenage stepsister and friends. She found herself buried under a pile of household chores and, on top of that, discovered that the cottage kept a secret that had been waiting in the wings for years in a tin box in the attic.