Catriona Cameron, petite and feisty Melbourne waitress, has a secret. She doesn't know it's secret so much as it's a recipe she promised to hold in trust, to share with no one but her daughter when she has one. Everyone has a family recipe, don't they?

Lachie McKell is the modern-day Laird whose people are suffering. The last person who held the key to a 200-year-old tradition is dead; the business is failing; and people are losing their livelihoods with no hope in sight. But wait. Is that the same product on the other side of the world? What must he do to persuade an Australian recipe-holder to return to Scotland with him, then use her secret to save his community?