It's true that a hotel can hardly look more impressive and be more beautifully situated than Rhives Castle, but all beginnings are difficult. The young manager Carrie, who wants to lead the house to new splendor, has to realize this as well. That's why she worries a lot when she realizes that she is pregnant. What will her financier and life partner Sam say about this? As a newspaper publisher, he has his hands full trying to dissuade bestselling author Alexia White from suing for defamation: one of his employees accused her of plagiarism. The writer has it in her hands to financially destroy him and Carrie. Carrie's jealousy and the pressure from his bank don't make Sam's negotiations with the woman whose honor has been violated any easier.

Colonel Mortimer's son Gregory, his pride and joy, returns to the ancestral Cornish estate by the sea for the summer after loosing that year's only Horse Guards officer promotion to his neighbor-buddy Eric. By ancestral tradition, that means another delay too for his long-planned marriage with neighbor's daughter Rebecca, who already doubts if the are actually in love. Mortimer's new housekeeper Elisabeth proves irresistible for father (platonically) and son, but is held back by a family secret concerning her late mother Catherine. Eric also has a confession to make.

Marketing student Emma Clark is looking forward to her semester break with her boyfriend Robert, which is to begin with a visit to her mother Maggie on the family's beautiful farm.

Despite all the warnings from her friends and colleagues, Olivia starts her own business with themed tours in a vintage bus. But the first setback comes on the very first trip. The luxury hotel she had booked reports water damage. The tour group ends up at Nicolas Arlington's guesthouse, which is still being renovated.

When 24-year-old Tom, Sawcombe's grandson, meets 20-year-old Vicky Harding while doing an internship at the neighboring farm, it's love at first sight. But Vicky's parents find out about it and forbid their daughter to have any contact with Tom.

London lawyer Owen Lockhart inherited a distant uncle's grand but run-down Cornish coastal estate and moves in with the intent to sell it. Senior constable Maxwell Breckett's wife Adele, his late uncle's secretary, hopes to change Owen's mind by rallying local clients and hiring as cook foxy local agricultural engineer Holly Heston, fatherless boarding school pupil Toby's single mother. She's in love with constable Lucas Corbin, the only one into whom she confided a grim family secret, but he finds out about her fast-budding affair with Owen.

Finally the time has come. During the holidays, Christabel, who is studying in the USA, travels to her parents. To her parents' surprise, she is joined by her future husband, Nigel. When the wedding preparations are in full swing, she meets her childhood friend Sam and realizes that she feels more for him than friendship. Suddenly Christabel is no longer sure who her heart beats for.

Auf der Isle of Wight spielt sich heute ein besonders kompliziertes Familiendrama ab: Tom (Oliver Boysen) gerät zwischen seine neue Verlobte Sam und seine alte Liebe Virginia.

The twin sisters Flora and Rose were separated after giving birth. The mother left the father to go to America. At the age of 22, the two girls met again by accident in London. It is a shock for both of them, since they believed until then that they had no siblings.

Lord Ravenhurst, a former British fencing champion, runs his seaside country estate with his devoted junior son, Taylor, who recruits a youth friend, landscape architect Vivian, daughter of loyal steward Desmond, to help with some modernization. She's disappointed to learn to invitation didn't come from his lordship's firstborn, Samuel, her former flame whom she expected to be in charge. In fact he became a London banker and got engaged to tycoon Archie 's daughter Annabel to pay for his gambling debts. The lord's wife Margaret dies unexpectedly, too short after telling Taylor Samuel was adopted but ignores so to change her will, as the estate is her father's heritage. Samuel returns only to claim 'his inheritance' and Vivian, who is starting to fall for Taylor's honest charm.

Edward Rosmore, a millionaire suffering from a fatal disease, uses a pretext to bring George Armstrong - the man his beloved wife adored when she was younger - back into her life; he wants to make sure there will be somebody to look after her after his death. But his plan seems to go completely askew when his wife misunderstands his intentions and thinks he is planning a new beginning with his secretary. On top of which her daughter begins to fall in love with George, not realizing he is actually her father. And then, when the misunderstandings and half-truths have completely divided the family, there is a tragic sailing accident. Edward dies - and George comes under suspicion of murder...