Louisa Atherton lives a pampered life until the day her husband Jack dies of a heart-attack in the arms of another woman leaving her bankrupt and giving her no option but to move with her daughter Holly to her childhood home of Rainbow's End and her prickly mother Minna. Her main aim is to sell "Mary Kelly's" dilapidated house which was left to her by her father. But through a series of events she sets about doing up the house and moving into it along with the helpful and not so helpful advice of the townspeople of Rainbow's End.