Tessa Piggott has reached a turning point: she gives up her high-flying City job and expensive lifestyle to become the director of a small Third World charity, S.E.E.D.

Having been unceremoniously dumped by her long-term partner (and former boss), she renounces men in a bid to steer clear of the kind of trouble they have previously caused her. Fate has other ideas. A chance encounter with ex-plumber and self-made millionaire, Frank Carver, leaves feisty Tessa struggling to maintain her resolve.

Frank and Tessa's relationship develops over the course of three series and across continents, as the couple's work takes them far and wide. Their difficulties, as well as the problems experienced by family and friends such as Rabbi Diane Warburg, remind us that sometimes love hurts.