Chloe finds a lone, unsheltered leveret on a path near her countryside home after hearing unexplained barking.

Chloe's sister brings powdered formula and Chloe attempts to feed the leveret for the first time.

A wildlife expert warns Chloe that the leveret will likely die and that hares cannot be domesticated.

Chloe builds a pen for the leveret but removes it after the stressed creature begins urinating inside.

Chloe discovers William Cowper's writings on hares and uses his dietary advice to guide the leveret's feeding.

At ten weeks old the leveret begins moving freely through the garden and invites Chloe to chase it.

At four months old the leveret leaves Chloe's garden without warning, and she fears it is gone forever.

The leveret returns the next morning and establishes a new pattern of nightly roaming and returning each dawn.

The leveret is found limping for several consecutive days, and Chloe chooses not to give it the vet's prescribed painkiller.

Now one year old, the hare is seen boxing with other hares as part of a mating ritual.

Chloe returns from travels abroad to find the hare accompanied by three young leverets of her own.

Chloe has a small hare-sized door cut into the side of her house so the hare can enter and exit freely.

The youngest leveret suddenly falls ill with no visible cause and dies silently in Chloe's lap.

Chloe walks through the harvested fields and finds numerous dead hares and small animals killed by farm machinery.

Chloe decides not to return to London full-time and permanently makes the country house her base of operations.

Chloe Dalton retreats to the countryside during the COVID-19 pandemic and impulsively rescues a lone leveret she finds on a path near her home. A wildlife expert warns her the creature will likely die, but against the odds, it survives under her care, slowly exploring her home and garden. At four months old the leveret vanishes without warning, then returns and begins a new pattern of nightly roaming and returning each dawn. As it matures, a leg injury forces Chloe to consciously choose non-intervention over veterinary treatment. After a year the hare mates, and Chloe returns from travels to find it nursing leverets of its own in her garden. The tragedy of a leveret's sudden death and the devastation she witnesses after a mechanical harvest cement Chloe's resolve to stay in the countryside permanently.

The headline story of rescuing and raising a wild hare.

A mother hare gives birth to a leveret in bitter winter and is forced to leave it alone to forage.

Chloe's sister sources a kitten and hedgehog formula to serve as a substitute milk for the leveret.

The leveret figures out how to hop upstairs and begins appearing beside Chloe while she works.

Chloe's research reveals that Britain has lost nearly 80 percent of its hare population in the last century.

Friends and family repeatedly suggest names for the leveret, but Chloe refuses to name it.

Chloe reads George Gascoigne's 1575 hunting guide, which includes a poem written from a hare's own perspective.

Inspired by the leveret's time in the garden, Chloe plants new flowers, bushes, and grasses herself.

The leveret chews into an evergreen bush and hollows out a perfect burrow in the earth beneath it.

Chloe begins distinguishing individual bird species, recognising animal tracks, and naming plants she had never noticed before.

Chloe sees the leveret in the company of another wild hare and is relieved it has not been rejected.

The leveret's injured leg slowly heals, and Chloe watches its normal daily routines gradually resume.

Chloe contracts her mother to care for the hare while she travels first to London and then to the Middle East.

The hare's second litter of leverets begins pattering through Chloe's house at night, waking her regularly.

A stoat is spotted prowling through Chloe's garden, introducing a new predatory threat to the young leverets.

Chloe begins gathering local plants and grasses to identify them, finding renewed purpose after the trauma of the harvest.

Before Chloe even arrives on the scene, a mother hare is forced to leave her newborn leveret alone in the cold, setting the story in motion. Once Chloe takes the creature in, her sister sources a substitute formula and practical knowledge fills the early gaps in Chloe's care. Research reveals the devastating scale of hare population decline across Britain, and friends' repeated attempts to name the leveret push Chloe to articulate her decision to respect its wildness. As the leveret grows, it reshapes Chloe's garden and sharpens her awareness of the broader ecosystem surrounding her home. After the hare survives its leg injury and Chloe travels for work, a second litter is born in the house, leverets begin roaming the rooms at night, and a prowling stoat introduces fresh danger. The pool closes with Chloe finding renewed purpose in learning the local flora after the heartbreak of the autumn harvest.

The supporting moments that shaped Chloe's life with the hare.

Chloe waits several hours beside the leveret to see if its mother returns before deciding to rescue it.

The leveret survives its first night alone and is found having fashioned a small nest inside Chloe's shoebox.

Chloe moves the leveret to a quiet back bedroom after realising her barn's sounds are entirely unlike those of the wild.

Pandemic lockdowns close the local library, but librarians gather every available book on hares for Chloe's research.

Chloe reads about hare folklore, including the widespread belief that witches disguised themselves as hares to roam the countryside.

Chloe discovers that the leveret keeps a precise daily schedule of movements, revealing that wild animals maintain predictable routines.

When the leveret disappears, Chloe is unexpectedly grief-stricken and finds herself crying over a single stray oat from its last meal.

Chloe realises she is less interested in her career and no longer identifies herself primarily as a political analyst.

A vet prescribes a canine painkiller for the leveret's injured leg but admits it could harm the creature.

Plowing season strips the surrounding fields to bare stubble, and Chloe grasps firsthand how agriculture destroys animal habitat.

Chloe connects the hare's boxing behaviour to Lewis Carroll's Mad March Hare and concludes hares have been profoundly misunderstood.

The hare gives birth to leverets inside Chloe's home, which Chloe interprets as the ultimate expression of trust.

Chloe observes the hare feeding and protecting its leverets on a strict schedule, contradicting scientific accounts of hare parenting.

Chloe returns from a three-week trip to the United States to find an unexpected additional leveret in her garden.

Chloe buries the dead leveret beneath the rose bush and resolves to focus on gratitude rather than grief when the hare eventually leaves.

Every stage of Chloe's relationship with the hare is marked by moments that shift her thinking about nature, caregiving, and her own identity. She waits at the leveret's side before choosing to intervene, and each early caregiving mistake—like the failed bedroom move and the chaotic pen—teaches her something about respecting wildness. Deep reading about hare folklore and the leveret's own precise daily habits reveal how poorly humans understand the animals living alongside them. The hare's first disappearance from the garden forces Chloe to confront grief and admit that the countryside now feels like home. Later milestones—the hare giving birth inside her house, Chloe's observation that it mothers its young beyond anything science predicted, and her return from America to find an unexpected leveret—deepen her sense of wonder. The pool ends with Chloe burying a dead leveret and finally accepting the permanent possibility of loss, choosing gratitude over grief.