Forty-three-year-old Mary Horton lives in a quiet middle-class suburb on Sydney's North Shore. A straight-laced, emotionally distant spinster, Mary has worked hard to set herself up. With no partner and no friends, her idea of 'life' does not include personal relationships. Tim Melville is a 25-year-old labourer with the body and face of a Greek god, but the mind of a child. A gentle outcast in a cruel, unbending world, Tim has a loving family, but is often derided and taken advantage of by his so-called friends. By chance, one summer morning Tim meets Mary and what begins as a day's labour for the kind-hearted young man becomes a life-changing relationship for both of them. - Publishers description.