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When Penelope Keeling returns from hospital her three children, Nancy, Olivia, and Noel, are concerned. The idea that their mother is living alone with only Ellen, her devoted help in occasional attendance, is a worry, but what causes Penelope's children far greater anxiety is the fact that she is so woefully underinsured for the valuable paintings her artist father left her in his will.

Aware of this, as well as of her imminent mortality, Penelope calls in art dealer Roy Brookner, and it is to him that she reveals the whereabouts of some rare and valuable sketches that her father also bequeathed to her. While her children become obsessed with the money the paintings will fetch at auction, Penelope wants only to return to Cornwall, to her memories of her parents and the recollection of her secret wartime love, Richard.

Since none of her children are willing to sacrifice even a few days to accompany her, Penelope takes her young gardener, Danus, and Antonia, the daughter of Olivia's one-time lover, back to Portkherris, where The Shell Seekers was painted. It is possibly her last journey, and she knows it, but with her heart filled only with love for Richard and thoughts of what might have been, Penelope makes a series of decisions which prove bring the story to its unexpected climax.