It is late summer in East Sussex, 1914. Amidst the season's splendour, fiercely independent Beatrice Nash arrives at the coastal town of Rye to take up a teaching position at the local grammar school. There she is taken under the wing of formidable matriarch Agatha Kent, who, along with her charming nephews, tries her best to welcome Beatrice to a community that remains resistant to the idea of female teachers. But change is coming, and the limits of the old ways will be tested as this small idyllic place prepares for the devastating realities of war.