Successful New Zealander thriller writer Dane Inglethorpe is visiting Britain on an exhausting signing tour. His publisher has arranged yet another signing, this time at a famous antiques shop, Leonora's, in Surrey.

Leonora is currently displaying New Zealand artifacts and has become enamoured by Dane's most recent books. Unwillingly, Dane goes to see her and is pleasantly surprised by the display, which features some excellent murals. He discovers that the artist is Leonora's granddaughter, Chloe.

At lunch with Leonora, he overhears a red-headed girl reject a proposal and she storms out of the restaurant. Always the alert writer, Dane feels that this is good subject matter and notes everything down. But when he returns to the shop he is intrigued to find that the artist granddaughter is also the red-head at the restaurant.

Dane asks Chloe to return to New Zealand with him to restore his pioneer home and covert his sister's house on the property into the restaurant she has dreamed of. But though he and Chloe are initially drawn to each other, Chloe is incensed when she discovers his notes on the quarrel in the restaurant back in England. Is she just being used as material for Dane's next book or does he really love her?