Sisters Crista and Maggs work in a Devon village paper mill. Life is hard - the Great War has recently ended, money is scarce and days are long. Even the Saturday night dances are same-ish. But they are happy enough, particularly when love comes along. Crista loses her job but is taken on as housekeeper for the new younger doctor, Jamie. A relationship develops. Maggs falls in love with Rupert Swain, son of the mill owner, gets pregnant and is abandoned. But Dickie, badly injured during the war, has always loved her and she agrees to marry him. Forty-five years later, Maggs is still married to Dickie, running one of the village pubs. Crista is a widow with three grown-up children. Life has been good to her, but meeting Max could signal a new stage in her life. But can love win through in those greying years?