In the aftermath of the Second World War, Faye Harvey struggles against the stigma of being a single mother. Then Mark Fuller, badly ravaged by his POW experiences in the Far East, arrives in Cornwall to see the three children under the guardianship of Faye and her uncle Tristan. Mark, about to enter an amicable divorce, still needs nursing. Faye is drawn to him - but then the father of her son, a Scottish laird, turns up, offering marriage now his wife is dead. Faye is torn, but her main concern has to be what is best for her son. Meanwhile, Tristan falls for the new housekeeper Susan Dowling, but their age difference and her distrust of men seem to make love impossible. And over at Ford Farm, Faye's cousin Lottie Harmon, waiting for her former GI husband to come from America, beings to fear she may not want a new life with him after all...