A combination of overwork and jet lag propels Julia Fairfax into becoming engaged to a golf-playing wine buff called Oscar. When she realises that she has fonder feelings for his adorable Labrador than for Oscar himself, she is forced to confront the fact that there is something drastically wrong with her life. Ditching her fiance and packing in her job, she decides to revolutionise her life.
Her new career as a cook on a pair of hotel boats is certainly a departure from the old Julia, and teaches her more about life than how to get a couple of narrow boats through a lock. But even afloat Julia's past catches up with her. She must contend not only with the persistent Oscar (not to mention his frightful mother and her own mother's determined matchmaking), but also the arrival of her childhood enemy, the enigmatic Fergus Grindly...
