A group of friends downshift from London to Cornwall to live in a rambling old manor house. As the renovation project starts to take shape, so the bricks and mortar of their own lives begin to crumble and they slowly realise that fresh starts have little to do with geography.

'There are two ways of looking at what we're doing,' Niall said, peering through the candlelight at the box loads of belongings all over the floor. "Essentials for simple living" was what they had all agreed to bring. It didn't look like it. 'One is that we're all as mad as bollocks, and the other is that everyone else is.' When four close-knit friends miss their train, escaping Britain's worst rail crash for sixty years, they are confronted with their own mortality. Their current lives juggling city jobs, marriages and children are suddenly not enough. An idyllic but ramshackle Cornish manor beckons and they decamp to the country on a quest for the perfect life. As the renovation of the house begins, a closely-guarded secret threatens to be uncovered. The bricks and mortar of the group's long friendship start to crumble. It soon becomes clear that fresh starts have little to do with geography, and the four of them are left with the harsh choice: should they chase their dream or wake up to reality?