a gardener's tale is set in a small country village in the south of england. it is a community with over a thousand years of history and tradition, ever in the shadow of a stately house whose family has lived here uninterrupted from feudal times. following the tragic death of the lady of the manor and the dispersal of the rest of the family, the villagers began to fear for their symbiotic existence. fifteen dark years have passed with decay and change slowly advancing upon their time honoured way. a heart attack forces lord hartley to return to his ancestral home where, aware of his heritage and duties, he begins taking the first steps towards rehabilitating the house, its garden, his scattered family and himself. in doing so, lord hartley offers new hope and stability into the village. tradition begins to reclaim its original role…or so it appears. the death of his gardener, who had loyally served his father before him, brings lord hartley to realise that the key to healing his family and tenants lies in the resuscitation of the garden. an intricate relationship is revealed between the garden and all that come into contact with it. none more so than that of the new gardener whose job is to revive the overrun and exhausted land. a mysterious welshman comes, bringing with him habits and beliefs that are at the same time alien yet strike a strangely familiar chord in the sub-conscious of those who inhabit the house and village. as the family of hartley hall begins to return, this man's effect on them is no less complicated. true friendship, confrontation and romance interplay as the gardener effects each member of the family in such dramatically different ways. eventually we learn that the gardener has a mission of his own, one that requires the reemergence of ancient traditions upon which the garden, family and community once thrived. a religion long lost almost entirely to vague recollection spreads itself within the community, reclaiming its position as an integral part of the culture. no one who comes into contact with this energy leaves unchanged. yet none experience the transformation more than donald, a social outcast, who under the tutorage of the gardener is brought to the threshold of societal acceptance, only to be offered the chance to reject it all.