- Wilfred James, the son of an Oxford don and a gentle poetic young man of 25, finds himself amid the sweeping Yorkshire moorlands to heal from the scars of the first world war.
- To aid recuperation, uncountable young men, broken and damaged from the horror of war and deemed physically able, were sent to rural farms, among them Wilfred James. The son of an Oxford don and a gentle poetic young man of 25, prays the silence and still landscape will heal the scars beneath the skin and quell the terrors that visit him each night. Yew tree farm is run by the widow Nora Casson. A stoic unyielding woman of middle age, fused with the land, her livestock and the grind of survival in the endless cycle of work prayer and sleep. Nora has a son, Jeremiah, an ethereal some would say beautiful young man, the same age as Wilfred. He is Nora's biggest disappointment, in a life of many disappointments, for her son refused to fight, to serve King and country. Her son was a white feather coward and even now as the guns have fallen silent Nora will not bend. Stark contrast to her other son Levi, who exists on the farm after being paralyzed from doing his duty. Yew tree farm is also home to infantry men Toby, Alfie and Gerry, three robust northern lads happy to be outdoors working the land, skinny dipping in the pond, bringing a chorus of cheerful laughter and youthful horseplay to Nora's world. Yet beneath the outward veneer lies the damaged soiled bed sheets, after, night terrors private tears and for Alfie, a growing hidden compulsion to end it all. In the nearby village Maude Blyton is carrying a secret. She is in the family way after many a secret tryst with the roguish Toby Potter, now all she has to do is persuade him to marry her break the news to her mother and find a way to get her Aunt Nora to extract sufficient money for a bit of a do from the formidable skin flint Aunt Earnestine. As the somewhat rushed, wedding preparations bring a flurry of distraction to Yew Tree Farm Wilfred and Jeremiah are drawn ever closer, despite instruction to the contrary. In this new strange life he soon realizes that he is profoundly attracted to Jeremiah. In turn both young men find reasons to be alone together and a fragile trust develops, one that will lead to love. Alfie had not arrived at the wedding. As she runs across the fields, heart pounding the discovery already clear in her mind Nora cries for the first time in many years. Later she stands waiting for Jeremiah as Alfie swings from the apple tree. As her son cuts him down mother and child exchange the first words in years. As the love affair between Wilfred and her son is discovered... Nora is forced to choose.
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