San Francisco 1904. Georgia Briscoe a young woman from a good family is unwillingly betrothed to businessman Drew Kemp when she falls for handsome British sailor Ellis Cowper. Drew had the charm to dazzle everyone around him but when the couple are married it soon transpires that Drews charm is only skin-deep & that he is in fact a greedy gambling addict with a penchant for other women including Georgias maid Maura & jealous sister Prudence. When Georgia & Maura fall pregnant both women decide to escape to be with the men they love providing Prudence with an opportunity to seize Drew
- & much more besides. London 1948. When Chrissie Kemp travels to the Lake District to visit her grandmother Georgia she is not prepared for the shocking revelation that is about to throw her family into turmoil. As a last act of vengeance on her death bed Prudence claims that Chrissies mother Vanessa & her late father Aaran are brother & sister. As the truth unfurls the passion emotion & astounding love that occurred in San Francisco forty years ago is revealed & three generations of the family are tested to their limits.