Starring James Wilby, Imogen Stubbs and Susannah York, the plot takes place in 1902 and 1920, wherein a young gentleman visiting a rural area had an intense love affair with a village girl.

In the summer of 1902, Frank Ashton, an educated young barrister from London, is on a walking holiday in Devon with a friend.

When he falls and twists his ankle, Ashton is helped at a nearby farmhouse in Dartmoor and stays there for a few days to recover, while his friend goes on.

Halliday cautions Ashton against rash decisions when it comes to love, warning him that he is getting caught up in the idealism of romance rather than reality, including the fact that he would be uprooting Megan from the only home she knows.

Back in Dartmoor, Megan holds onto the hope that Ashton will return for her and she goes to wait at a rendezvous spot they had agreed upon.

In 1946, Jesse L. Lasky announced he would make a film of the story from a script by DeWitt Bodeen at RKO, but nothing came of it.

[2] In 1969, Kenneth Hyman said he wanted to make his directorial debut with a film version of the story, which would be made for under $800,000, but again no movie resulted.

[5] In 1987, production was at last funded, based on a script by Penelope Mortimer, and James Wilby, Imogen Stubbs, and Susannah York were cast in the leading roles.

"I couldn't remember a thing about it", adding that "the last apple got written out [of the script] a week before shooting - it was the wrong time of year.

[9] Variety called the film a "beautifully made pastoral romance", and commented, "Stage actress Stubbs is a real find as the heartbroken heroine, bringing a modern strength to the period role, while Wilby is a sympathetic version of the archetypal weak young aristocrat.

"[10] Sheila Benson of Los Angeles Times also gave acclaim to Stubbs, calling her a "magical screen presence", but critiqued the framing device that brings Ashton back to Devon 18 years later, saying, "It sets a mucilaginous tone to what should be a minor-key tragedy; the sharp differences of class and privilege have been sandpapered down into bucolic quaintness and banality.

"[11] In Video Review, Molly Haskell wrote, "This story of a tragic betrayal of a loving heart rolls with the inexorable force of a runaway railway train as it unfurls one unforgettable image after another of unrequited commitment.