Children's voices ring out from the school playground; in the distance there is the gentle hum of a lawnmower; and all around the village birdsong can be heard. But despite all evidence to the contrary, in the village of Thrush Green, feelings are running high... The rector has a plan for the neglected churchyard which doesn't meet with universal approval; there is a clash of personalities at the local school; and someone has returned to the village after an absence of fifty years. Before long, the tranquillity of the Cotswold village is shattered.