The Buckwater family live side-by-side with their Ceylonese staff in a house nestled in the lush hillside tea estates of '30s Ceylon. Premawathi is their cook and housekeeper. She has two beautiful daughters and a son, Chandi, who even at four-years-old is bright, inventive and more mischievous than his young harried mother can sometimes cope with. As the novel opens Elsie Buckwater, an embittered woman, is giving birth to her third baby. Chandi is enchanted by the idea of making an English friend and he christens her Rose-Lizzie after the flowers he loves. But the discontented Elsie imposes a stifling and unhappy atmosphere on the household and forbids Chandi to go near her baby daughter, whom she herself largely ignores. Eventually however she packs her bags and returns to England. Without her, life at the bungalow flourishes. Chandi and Rose-Lizzie are left in peace to play and John Buckwater, her fair-minded, gentle father, becomes very attached to Chandi's mother. The first tragedy of the book arises from their closeness and Chandi, now older and less naive, is forced to see that there must always be complications and secrecy in the two families' friendship. As the years go on the political atmosphere becomes one of heightened Ceylonese discontentment with British rule, and John realises that their idyll on the island must soon end. He suggests Chandi, whose dream from four-years-old has been to live in England, and his mother return there with the Buckwaters. But Premawathi will not leave Ceylon and the two entwined families must bear being torn apart.
This deeply moving and beautifully written novel is one for all generations. It is an enchanting book, utterly satisfying and full of warmth.