Dr Grace Harper has loved the stories of Robin Hood ever since she first saw them on TV as a girl. Now, with her fortieth birthday just around the corner, she's a successful academic in Medieval History, with a tenured position at a top university.

But Grace is in a bit of a rut. She's supposed to be writing a textbook on a real-life medieval gang of high-class criminals - the Folvilles - but she keeps being drawn into the world of the novel she's secretly writing - a novel which entwines the Folvilles with her long-time love of Robin Hood - and a feisty young girl named Mathilda, who is the key to a medieval mystery...

Meanwhile, Grace's best friend Daisy - who's as keen on animals as Grace is on the Merry Men - is unexpectedly getting married, and a reluctant Grace is press-ganged into being her bridesmaid. As Grace sees Daisy's new-found happiness, she starts to re-evaluate her own life. Is her devotion to a man who may or may not have lived hundreds of years ago really a substitute for a real-life hero of her own? It doesn't get any easier when she meets Dr Robert Franks - a rival academic who Grace is determined to dislike but finds herself being increasingly drawn to...