Taken from a Journal of a successful business woman and owner of a large fashion franchise the novel charts the progress of Jo an attractive young student stranded in a railway station in 1956 with a group of soldiers.She is rescued from an ugly situation by a West Indian Sergeant known as Snowy.They remain friends and she tells him her story. She was brought up during the war in the Lake District and lived in a run down store owned by her mother Ruth a widow who married an Italian Dino, who was a prisoner in a nearby Internment camp. He becomes rich and powerful. When Ruth tragically dies of cancer Jo is under his control and a Ward of Court. Abandoned by the man she loves she gives birth to a baby boy but has to escape the wrath of Dino who threatens to have her committed to a nursing home in Naples.. She establishes herself in London and takes a new identity but the past catches up with her in unexpected ways.