Now she is gone and David feels himself destroyed. In search of solace, David returns with his children Incheilich, his parents' baronial home in the Scottish countryside. So overwhelmed with grief is he, that he withdraws from his parents, his children, and ignores his responsabilites at the family distillery. Rather, he spends his days knee deep in mud, focussing all of his energies into the reinstatement of Incheilich's gardens. It is only while working in the gardens that David finds respite from his pain.

It is a crisis at the distillery that forces David to assume his role at the distillery and travel to the United States. Though he had steeled himself for the voyage, staying in the home of an old army friend, he quickly finds that he is ill prepared emotionally to face the world once again. David is surprised to find a certain degree of comfort in being a stranger in a strange land. In America, he is freed of all that has happened to him, he is free to reconstruct his shattered life. Wandering the village's streets, David happens upon a sign which reads: "Gardeners/Handymen Required". Soon he is spending his days working in a large garden. With the heat of the American sun on his back and in his new surroundings, David suddenly begins to feel aliveagain.

Gradually, he comes to know the housekeeper and Benjy, the lonely boy whose parents own the estate though they are rarely in it together. David befriends Benjy, teaching him how to play the ukelele and tennis. David comes to see how Benjy's parents' strained marriage has taken its toll on the young boy. David needs Benjy's friendship as much as Benjy needs his. It is some time before Benjy's mother notices the mysterious Scottish gardener who is making her son smile and laugh again. Caring for another family, David becomes able to care for his own again. Loving another family, David becomes able to love again.