She knew now, with a sense of deep tranquil certainty, that terror and injury could not spring from love of this kind, no matter what Nurse said. But she could not put all this into words.

Set over the course of a summer, The Spring Begins follows the autonomous awakenings of three women at various stages of life and at different levels of employment within households. There's the young orphan Lottie, employed as a nursemaid to the wealthy Kellaway children and terrified by the world of men; the scullery maid Maggie, 19, and unafraid of seeking out pleasure where it is offered to her; and Hessy Price the older governess to a local clerical family whose worldview shatters when her younger sister becomes engaged. As each woman tries to navigate their physical desires alongside social propriety, the currency of beauty and youth alongside the toll domestic work and poverty takes on their bodies, each comes to find happiness in their own unique way.

This human drama is set against the Kellayway's beautiful country house, though the house is often little more than the anchor to the vast garden and the wild stretch of coast owned by the family. It is against the bloom of flowers and the crash of waves that these springs of attraction and longing play out.