When Fleet Street reporter Steve Lewis goes to cover a sex scandal involving a university principal and a film star, his world turns upside down. Back in his native Glanaber, his past comes back to haunt him in the shape of his former girlfriend Annette, by whom he sired a baby that died in infancy - the "love child" of the title.
How will his wife Jocelyn react when his secrets are laid bare? And how can his career survive the decision by his bosses to locate him permanently in this "journalistic backwater"?
Set against a background of the spirited Welsh language campaigns of the Sixties, this fast-moving novel provided an unforgettable picture of small-town life, with all its intrigues and jealousies.