Delighted when impresario and family friend, Oliver Duncan suggests turning her novel into a mini-series, author Rosemary Fielding is less kindly disposed towards Oliver’s choice of leading man, actor Stephen Walker.
Aware of Stephen’s reputation, Rosemary dreads meeting him. True to form, Stephen is rude and arrogant causing Rosemary to retaliate.
With Oliver insisting they settle their differences, author and actor spend a weekend together. Here Rosemary introduces Stephen to the delights of the Norfolk countryside and likens their blossoming relationship to the scarlet and black cinnabar moths circling above them.
Unfortunately the colours of the cinnabar also herald a sign of danger, their bitter aftertaste a warning to all predators.
Conscious of the disparity in their ages, Rosemary being seven years older, and increasingly concerned by a two-legged predator closer to home (Jane, her twenty year old daughter), Rosemary wonders if, just like the cinnabar, she and Stephen will share only one summer together.
