When Kate Robinson leaves her Seattle home to travel across Ireland, she is looking to escape; fleeing a broken relationship, a failing career in fashion and the crushing grief over her mother’s death. Her strict itinerary keeps her busy, moving from place to place with little time to dwell on the past. Until a chance meeting with a traveller leads her to Glenmara, a beautiful coastal village in the far west of the country.

Bernie Cullen and her friends have lived in Glenmara all their lives, their blood and that of their ancestors tied to the landscape, to the raging sea. Their village has survived the toils and tragedies of countless years; but Glenmara is now facing a new threat, one that may extinguish it forever. The work is becoming increasingly scarce, the children moving away. And the women themselves face their own daily fights for happiness, for survival – the hardships in their lives only put aside once a week, when they meet to lay the world to rights and to create exquisite pieces of lace.

When Kate arrives in Glenmara, nothing will ever be the same again. And in altering the lives of these women and the fate of the village itself, Kate may also find salvation . . .

''A charming, moving story, written with a delicate touch'' Joanne Harris