This is the story of Harry Fox-Talbot, called Fox by his friends and family and of Hartgrove Hall, the family estate he grew up on in the 1930s and 40s.
Set at the end of WW II and in the early 2000s, we see Fox as a budding young composer in the 1940s and as a lonely, elderly man in the 2000s.
Just a schoolboy, Fox misses out on serving in the military, unlike his two older brothers, Jack and George. Jack and George come home to Hartgrove Hall to the distressing news that their father can no longer afford to pay for the upkeep of the crumbling mansion and is planning to sell it. The three sons talk the old man into letting them try to make the property pay by improving the farms.
Jack has a girlfriend, Edie Rose, an attractive and successful pop singer that both Fox and George are smitten by. It soon becomes clear that Edie likes Fox too, but she stays with Jack. When Jack and Edie come home and announce they are now married, Fox is devastated and leaves Hartgrove Hall the same day.
Time passes and Edie comes looking for Fox and they began having an affair. She and Jack haven't become parents yet and when she becomes pregnant, she doesn't know which is the father, Jack or Fox. She and Fox decide she has to tell Jack about the affair and Jack is furious and leaves Hartgrove Hall, leaving Fox and Edie to do as they please.
Meanwhile the story shifts from his youth to his old age. Edie has died and Fox is depressed and finding life no longer worth living. But he finds new joy and purpose in the form of his young grandson, Robin, who Fox realizes is a musical prodigy. Fox sharing his love of music with Robin makes life worthwhile again.
Surprisingly interesting, I wasn't expecting too much from this story but it turned out really good. Not a typical romance, as much of the story is about Fox and Robin as about Fox and Edie. I truly did enjoy it.
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