It is 1948, and the village of Hennaford is struggling to recover from the war. Johnny Harvey is disillusioned and restless; injured in the war, older than the pilots he trained and disturbed at the changing society, he watches his friends marry as life seems to pass him by. Meanwhile, sixteen-year-old Tess Viant, crippled with polio and abandoned by her heartless fisherfolk family, is befriended by Jill Harvey. Jill is delighted to be pregnant after four years of marriage to Tom - but when complications arise, it's Tess who has to help Jill. With artist Abbie Rothwell arriving to help, but getting more interested in divorced young father Mark Fuller, money turning up in unexpected places, and a village play causing tensions all through Hennaford, Tess will have to learn to stand on her own as the dramas unfold.