When war is declared in 1939, Andrew and Victoria Pringle are expecting their second child. What should be a happy time is marred by the threat to the peace and future of their beloved glens. As their family grows up they take comfort in watching them thrive, and in seeing young Libby, the only girl, inherit her parents' love of the land. Libby has a special friendship with Billy Lennox, the Laird's illegitimate grandson. But when tragedy strikes, Billy blames himself, and is assailed by doubts and dark moods. He moves to Yorkshire to start a new life, but is forced to ask whether he can stay away from the glens and from the friends of his childhood...