When journalist Adam Chapman returns to the village of Little Bassington after inheriting his great aunt's estate, what he finds at first glance is an English idyll, untouched and unspoiled. The fields are as green as he remembers, the WI still gossip in the Village Hall, and the annual summer fête draws crowds to the Market Square every year.

All is well. Until one day. The day it's announced that they're going to demolish the old Water Tower.

Suddenly, the perfect world of Little Bassington is fractured. Battle lines are drawn and long-buried secrets are on the cusp of being unearthed. The consequences, both professional and personal, that stem from decisions around the Tower's fate will change the face of a village and the lives of its inhabitants forever.

Meanwhile, Adam Chapman - a man running from his own past - is drawn into an unexpected circle of acquaintances: a conflicted PhD student, an ageing art critic, a sympathetic widow, a recovering drug addict... and the woman from the Library to whom each of them will become inextricably linked.

The first in Chris Vobe's five-volume epic, 'The Water Tower' is a raw and uncompromising tale of love, loyalty and allegiance, and offers a candid exploration of the way we deal with loss.