Mary Vine believes her luck has changed. After surviving her first nineteen years, fiercely defending her chaotic family against anyone who dares criticise them, she has found happiness at last with her fiance, submariner Michael Miller. Cissie Nugent has lost her position as housemaid and is surviving by selling her body to passing sailors. But she has further to fall as she is betrayed by the only person she has ever trusted. Captain Charles Clements, once the employer of both Mary and Cissie, returns to Portsmouth after a humiliating divorce. Though a hero of Jutland, he must find a new sort of courage to face a future without his family. Soon the lives of Mary, Cissie and Captain Clements will change for the better in unexpected ways.