It is war-time Britain and seduced by her brother-in-law, Frances, 16, becomes pregnant and is banished to a lonely farm. She gives birth to twins, a boy and a girl, whom her mother heartlessly wrenches from her. And when told her baby daughter has died, Frances is overcome with grief. After years of loneliness and yearning, Frances sets out full of determination to be reunited with her son, Michael, and tell him the truth of his birth. Michael however has grown up believing Frances' sister Isabel is his mother. She has taken him on his dream adventure to live in Australia with her new husband. Could Frances shatter her son's joy?