A cantankerous, elegant old woman sits in her beautiful Somerset house while her family secretly plots to evict her. In the garden is Lady Pamela's last loyal retainer, out at grass is her one remaining racehorse, and in London is the man she should have married - still her dearest friend.

Maeve Delaney, streetwise and outrageous, and sole applicant for the job of companion to Lady Pamela, bursts into the old house like a firework. As open warfare settles into an wary truce between the two women, Maeve sets her heart on bringing the great racehorse, Irish Dancer, out of retirement, and everything changes.