Furious that his son has joined the Roundheads, a Royalist father bequeaths his estate to his daughter, Ann Faraday, decreeing that only girls bearing that name may inherit.

Down the years these women of his bloodline, or adopted and renamed, have kept diaries detailing their life-styles and current affairs and a 21st century Ann becomes aware of the parallels there are between their lives and her own, a mixture of happiness and sorrow.

Through her own daughters' eyes she sees beyond her family and estate into a vibrant, exciting world.