Ruan and Sylvia are the two daughters of a marriage which has weathered many emotional tempests. Their beautiful mother was disowned by her aristocratic "Country" family when she married the quiet young minister and settled down to the life in a small village.

Sylvia, a year older than Ruan, is beautiful and wilful and the apple of her mother's eye, while Ruan is quiet, like her father. When Ruan meets David there is never a moment's doubt of her love. David has ambitions to become a great doctor. Adopted by a wealthy uncle, it is a hard blow when he discovers the hidden truth about his own father, the uncle's brother. Torn as he is between ambition and his sense of responsibility to his family, he is called upon to make a decision which will color his whole life. Upon the appearance of Captain Dalton, new master of the local riding academy, Ruan's vital, vibrant and lovely mother succumbs to a passion she has never been able to repress. Leaving the vicarage and its endless routine of teas, she runs away with the gay, attractive Captain to resume a way of life to which she feels herself entitled. It is Rosie, the warm-hearted, wealthy friend of them all, passionately in love with the young farmer, Luke, who is able to ease much of the tension in their lives. "O, The Brave Music" is a romantic novel in the very best sense. It is warm, pulsing with life and peopled with characters who are believable and whose actions and motives are altogether human and understandable.