Jessie is the only daughter of the vicar of Abbot's Cove, an idyllic, sleepy village on the Cornish coast. At seventeen, she struggles to be recognised as an adult by her parents, who have wrapped her in cotton wool since her brother's death during the Second World War. In the three years since the war ended, Thomas and Ellen Penwarden have tried to shield Jessie from all of life's dangers, including heartbreak. But a teenage girl is bound to fall in love and needs to find her own way through the pitfalls of a new relationship. Luckily for Jessie, her best friend Rita Levant is more than happy to guide her along the way, and when the girls meet some boys from Penzance at a summer dance, Jessie falls in love for the first time . . .

Dating Will Tremayne, and riding on the back of his motorbike as he roars into the quiet village, seems incredibly glamorous and exciting to Jessie, although she daren't tell her strict father that she is falling in love with a biker boy - she knows only too well what he would say. Meanwhile, Rita's reckless nature leads her into trouble, and the Penwarden family soon has greater things to worry about than Jessie's blossoming romance.