When Penelope Jones was offered a job as nanny on the tiny island of Torvaig, off the West Cost of Scotland, she was anxious to take it for more than one reason. The most urgent was to 'get away from it all' - and from the heartbreak of a love affair that had gone wrong. And she was fascinated by the fact that her forebears had come from Torvaig and this would be her first chance to see the place for herself. But she soon discovered that her new employer, the formidable laird of Torvaig, didn't believe any of her reasons. For the children's sake he allowed her to stay, but gave her just four weeks in which to prove herself or get out - and Tearlach Gunn, she realised, was a man who meant what he said. Was it worth the inevitable battle? Should she just get out anyway?