It's 1968 and it's cold when Felicity arrives in London to stay with her mother, improve her English, do a secretarial course - and meet a suitable man. She is already missing her home in Provence and her father and his new wife and their extended family. But it's only for a year she tells herself - and then she can go back to France and do what she really wants and become a painter. And then she bumps into Oliver who is quite the most interesting young man she has ever met. He lives on a barge for one thing and has a collection of jobs, but his passion is looking for hidden treasures along the shores of the river Thames. In a word, he's a mudlarker - and before long Felicity is mudlarking too. She is also pursuing her dreams and painting scenery for Oliver's actor friends. But is Oliver a 'suitable man' of whom her mother will approve? Felicity knows she will not.