Benedict Redman is a widowed astronomy professor at Oxford University, who has raised his six-year old son alone. His new girlfriend, Stella, is an astrologer, and when he learns that her interest in the stars is more superstitious than scientific, he worries that a relationship between them could never work. He has an important research grant in the offing and can’t risk damaging his academic reputation. Orphaned at an early age, Stella McElhone is angry at this reaction since astrology is the only link she has to her late parents. She can’t bear Benedict’s narrow-mindedness and is torn between her principles and her growing love for him. However, their differences over astrology are not the real reason the couple are afraid to connect. Stella has been alone for so long that she is scared to love in case she is left alone again and the pain is too great to bear. Benedict’s guilt and grief over losing his wife have not allowed him to be with another woman. With a little interference from Benedict’s in-laws, he and Stella start to understand that their reasons for not being together are just poor excuses and the barriers they perceive are of their own making. It is their underlying emotional pain that is really keeping them apart. Stella and Benedict finally allow themselves to fall in love, and the story ends with a wedding at the planetarium at the Royal Observatory in Greenwich.