Kilbaddy Farm is in N E Scotland and Old Kilbaddy is the nickname given to its octogenarian owner, Jock Wishart, or was until he sold it to Matthew Grey, a 'white settler' from England. Whether Matthew will earn the soubriquet from his doubting neighbours remains to be seen, for he is struggling during yet another farming recession in 1990 when the story is set. This telling of a three-generational rural saga of love, betrayal and resolution is narrated by Bruno, a traumatised Polish refugee now long settled in the community. After WW2 he had crept into the valley to be nursed back to health along with Jock by Kate, Jock's wife. When Kate dies young, leaving clever, sensitive four-year-old Kathy in their care, the two men become adoring if unworldly fathers to her until she sets out for New Zealand with a loving but possibly unstable husband. The story opens when her third child, Kit (whom Bruno prefers to call Katherine), arrives on a spectacular motorbike, shattering the peace in every sense and bringing her own troubles for Bruno to solve, or at least soothe - and forcing him to face up to unresolved secrets in his own life. What nobody expects is that Old Kilbaddy absconds repeatedly from hospital to end up at his old home. Still locked into the rhythms of the seasons he frets about what jobs should be under way at any one time, although the rest of his life is increasingly hazy. How can those around the old man, while coping with their own individual problems, make use of the experience he is so anxious to share while giving him the care and comfort during the last phase of his life?