Isabel Dalhousie is in her early forties and lives alone in a large ageing house in the south of Edinburgh. Due to an inheritance left to her by her late mother, she can work for a nominal fee as the editor of the "Review of Applied Ethics". Her closest friends are her niece Cat, a young woman who runs a delicatessen; her housekeeper Grace, an outspoken woman with an interest in spiritualism; Cat's ex-boyfriend Jamie, a bassoonist to whom Isabel has been secretly attracted ever since they met; and Brother Fox, an urban fox who lives in Isabel's garden.