Forty-one and single, Tessa Piggott is a media/marketing high-flyer in the City. But, seeking pastures new, having been dumped by Hugh Marriner, her boss/lover of seven years, she moves into her own flat and becomes a director of SEED (Society for Environmental and Ecological Development), a third-world aid charity.

At the same time, she meets 49-year-old divorcee Frank Carver. A rough-diamond, Carver is, on the face of it, a lowly plumber but is in fact a millionaire businessman, whose Carver Corporation has just bought the little plumbing firm that Tessa calls out to fix her bathroom. They, somewhat inconveniently, fall in love, with all its emotional consequences. The series follows the development of Tessa and Frank's relationship, as work pressures and time apart take their toll.

In the second series, they get married while on business together in Russia, but married life proves just as tricky, as Tessa continues her development work, this time for the Baumblatt Foundation. By the third series, she is pregnant, giving birth to baby Alice. Juggling work and parenthood is equally fraught with tension.

Other major characters include rabbi Diane Warburg, who is chairman of SEED and also Tessa's confidante; Diane's duplicitous husband, Simon, a polytechnic lecturer; and Tessa's work rival, SEED's Overseas Director, Bob Pearce. Jade is Frank's 19-year-old student daughter whose untidiness drives him to distraction, and Max is his chauffeur/aide.