Harriet Smith (Pauline Collins), the new British ambassador to Ireland, desperately wants to make her mark in this historically difficult posting and try to put the tragic murder of her husband behind her. Harriet wants to be just and fair in her dealings with the Irish government and to try to make the relationship between the two governments less adversarial in nature. However, the situation is made considerably worse for her and her trusted assistant, John Stone (Denis Lawson), by her son Nate who refuses to accept the consequences of her new ambassadorial role and still blames her for his fathers death.