It is 1914 and Christabel Montgomery is happily preparing for her wedding when she receives the shattering news that her fiance has been drowned at sea. Heartbroken, she tries to piece her life together. But she soon discovers she is pregnant, and fearing her parents would throw her out if they knew, she decides to help the war effort by leaving home to become a nurse. At Hilbury Hospital she grows close to one of the doctors and for one impetuous moment she wonders if she can persuade him into marriage and let him think the child is his. But he is already married and breaks off the connection. Knowing that she cannot bring up the baby alone, an increasingly desperate Christabel has little choice but to seek assistance from her brother, Lewis. He finds her cheap lodgings in the poorest part of Liverpool and helps to get the baby adopted. He promises never to speak of the matter again. Christabel finally hopes to build a better future for herself, until circumstances force her to return home again. Here she finds her situation ever more difficult and envies her brother's wife Violet who has just had a new baby. She is filled with remorse and regret about what she has done. She had no alternative, for her sake and the baby's, but she wonders if she'll ever be free from the fateful decision she made...