Peter and Diana Hale have just purchased the middle two cottages amongst the two-hundred-year-old cottages known as Tyler's Row. They feature charming leaded-glass windows and an arched thorn hedge over the gateway,and are supposed to provide a haven of peace for their new owners, to create their own rural refuge. But beset by carpenters, plumbers, electricians, and bills, as well as their neighboring tenants, the redoubtable Sergeant Barnaby and the sour Mrs. Fowler, both longtime residents of Tyler's Row, the couple soon have cause to ponder their decision. Fairacre is not the utopia they expect, and the Hales must adapt to ordinary life in a village full of extraordinary quirks.
