England 1918. Young Lady Helen believes her parents when they say she will never find a better husband than Richard - 'brave, handsome, wealthy, such a charming man and quite a catch'. But when her soldier husband returns to war, Helen begins to wonder just who it is she has married - his letters home are cold and distant - and Helen realises that she has made a terrible mistake. And that's when Oliver Donovan enters her life. They begin an affair that leaves Helen pregnant and alone, and she is forced to surrender her precious baby.

Over twenty years pass and a second war is ravaging Europe, but that is not the only echo of the past to haunt the present. Laura Drummond is now caught in a tragic love affair of her own and when she is forced to leave London during the bombings, she turns to the mother she never knew.