Joe and Kate Ruttledge have returned from London to live and work among the small, close-knit community near to where Joe grew up. Now deeply embedded in life around the lake, the drama of a year in their lives and those of the memorable characters around them unfolds through the rituals of work, play and the passing seasons as this enclosed world becomes an everywhere.
Helene Alving leads an outwardly contented life. On the eve of the 10th anniversary of her husband's death, she is about to open an orphanage as a memorial to him. To mark this occasion, her bohemian painter son Oswald has returned from Paris. Helene plans to take the opportunity to tell Oswald the truth about his father. But ghosts of the past erupt during an eventful evening, bringing the facade of civilised family life crashing down.
In a windswept fishing village, a mother is torn between protecting her beloved son and her own sense of right and wrong. A lie she tells for him rips apart their family and close-knit community.
In the late 1980s, a Dutch anti-terrorism detective sets out to take down an IRA cell ruthlessly targeting English military personnel on leave in the south of the Netherlands.
The psychologist Cathrin Blake actually wants to withdraw from her work for the police. After a mysterious murder during the ghost parade of the "Samhain" harvest festival, however, Superintendent Kelly asks for her support. It's not just about the bloody act, but also about the disappearance of Holly Reid, the victim's friend.