A disillusioned London chef visits Nigeria and struggles with her matchmaking mother and restoring the family's rundown hotel. She's heartbroken when she discovers the man she loves is buying it.

Set in the port town of Dover in the South-East of England, Mary Hussain suddenly finds herself a widow following the unexpected death of her husband. A day after the burial, she discovers he has a secret just twenty-one miles across the English Channel in Calais.