Melissa is a divorced single mother teaching in a small village primary school. After she moves to the village to live in the cottage which becomes her home she meets an interesting guest house owner who has a very unusual past. She also discovers that the jam made from the fruit of the strange tree she finds in her garden may have special powers.

Melissa is very much a family person and her grown-up daughter and her mother play important roles in her life, sometimes with unforeseen complications. 17th Century Man is a charming story with an interesting twist, a tale of life's rich patterns and how the unexpected may arise from the humdrum pace of normal life.