Anne Sherwood has made her life into a safe, orderly garden. She draws the plants of London's famous Kew Gardens, an entirely suitable occupation for a widowed lady in Queen Victoria's England. Then a compelling invitation takes her to Ireland, to sketch a recently discovered tree...a golden sapling with unusual qualities and even more mysterious origins. Determined to learn more, Anne finds herself confronting Michael McEvoy, an enigmatic figure who prefers the lonliness of the wild to society and its entrapments. <P> Michael's heart beats to the rhythm of the land. The ebb and flow of the seasons and the cadence are his calendar and clock. When the prim Englishwoman arrives, he is stunned to discover her conventional exterior hides a kindred spirit, one as sensitive as he to growing things...his perfect mate. But, as much as he longs to make her his, they must first expose the origin's of the sapling and the dangerous corruption of nature that it represents...