Jennet Mallow is born in Yorkshire in the 1920s but her interest in art & creativity alienates her from her family her father who is a priest her conventional sister & her emotionally stunted mother. Jennet moves to London in search of a more exciting life & finds it in her new environment & in the handsome & enigmatic figure of the painter David Heaton. When Jennet falls pregnant her parents more or less force the two to marry. In the post-war austerity of the 1940s the young couple struggles to make ends meet & Jennet finds that her home life is gradually eroding everything she has fought to achieve. Aware that David is becoming increasingly reliant on drink & tired of the dank & drab bed-sit in which they live Jennet suggests they move to Spain. There the bright blue skies warm air & sunlit beaches give the couple & their children a new lease of life. Jennet begins to paint again & an agent takes an interest in her work. But as Jennets own career begins to take off her relationship with David sours & the two enter a destructive spiral with tragic consequences.