Angelica Angelotti has grown up in the family restaurant business started by her Italian father, Giovanni, and his English wife, Laura. Surrounded by gorgeous Italian food, now she wants to strike out on her own. Defying her father's wishes, she moves to Paris to learn French cuisine. There, caught up in the excitement and emotion of the May '68 student riots, she falls in love with a charismatic but unreliable man.

Back in London with her husband, Angelica's future career blossoms at the Savoy Hotel and further develops when she becomes a food writer. What happens to her marriage is another matter and her parents' concerns are proved painfully right.

Moving back to run the inn on her family's estate in Gloucestershire may feel like failure, but little does Angelica know that what awaits her there is the greatest challenge of her life - and a second chance at love.

The Prodigal Daughter, which can also be read as a standalone novel, is the second in Prue Leith's Food of Love trilogy.