Book excerpt: When gallery co-manager Audrey Spencer finds herself stranded on Hibernia - a forgotten island just off the mainland coast - she blames an old white house, and her own whimsy. After returning to her busy urban life, she can't shake the memory of the island, the house, and the strangers who had helped her: Rosa and Beppe, Dion, their grandson, and the quiet and mysterious Quin O'Rourke. When Audrey returns to Hibernia to thank them for their kindness, she finds herself immersed in the life of its people. Joined by her parents Isabel and Max, and her best friend Poppy - outrageous, gifted artist, and now single and pregnant - Audrey envisages a different way of living that just might involve the old house. But there are forces at work against her: threats to the island's ecosystem and its simplicity, her husband's greed, and the uncertainty surrounding her attraction to Quin O'Rourke. Is he Hibernia's enemy? Audrey must draw on her strengths if she is to help to save the island and reinvent herself, and she has an unlikely ally - the saffron crocus.