To the outsider Kit McMahon, growing up in the lakeside village of Lough Glass, leads a charmed life. She is the loved daughter of Martin McMahon, the kindly local pharmacist, and Helen, his beautiful wife. She has a little brother Emmet, a best friend Clio, and a host of other friends.

But all is not as it seems. Kit worries about her mother. Helen McMahon does not fit in with the people and the ways of Lough Glass. She wanders alone by the lake night after night - until the dark windy night when she disappears and only the lake knows the real reason.

Even though she leaves Lough Glass, Kit is constantly drawn back to the small town on the side of the lake with all the people who live there - Sister Madeleine the hermit, who lives alone in her little cottage helping or possibly creating the problems of those who visit her; Doctor Kelly, whose sister-in-law Maura has always had hopes of the widower Martin McMahon; Philip O'Brien, the young son of the very rundown Central Hotel, who has loved Kit since childhood; Stevie Sullivan who runs the garage and rules the affections of every woman for miles around; Emmet, Kit's younger brother, who conquers his speech impediment but not all his worries. And there's the love-hate relationship with Clio Kelly who has always been jealous of Kit.

She is determined to carry out her mother's last wishes that she should make something of her life, and take control of her own fortune.