What happens when the worst secret of your life turns out to be legally binding?

Jack Farrow has always been rather good at avoiding difficult conversations. Unfortunately, he's about to discover that some conversations have a way of catching up with you.

Five years ago, during a whisky-soaked weekend at the Highland Games on the Isle of Skye, Jack took part in what he thought was a harmless festival handfasting ceremony with a complete stranger.

Then Camille Ashworth arrives at his Lake District boatyard. She's not there for a reunion. She's there to tell him they're married. Legally married. For five years.

Suddenly Jack has bigger problems than explaining a mysterious wedding certificate. There's Rosie Calloway, the woman he's loved since childhood but never quite had the courage to tell. There's Freya Lindqvist, the intelligent, independent vet he's been dating while stubbornly refusing to admit just how serious things might be. And there's Camille, who has a wedding of her own coming up—and would quite like to get this particular marriage problem sorted out before then.

As Jack attempts to untangle his accidental marriage, his romantic disasters begin colliding with another crisis. A property developer is trying to buy his family's boatyard—and now has his sights set on Rosie's beloved bakery too.

With the future of two village businesses hanging in the balance, Jack and the people of Bellthwaite have to decide what they're willing to fight for. And as the annual lake festival approaches, Jack finally has to confront the one thing he's been avoiding all along: the truth about what—and who—he really wants.