San Francisco, 1904. Georgia Briscoe is unwillingly betrothed to businessman Drew Kemp when she falls for handsome British sailor Ellis Cowper. Drew has the charm to dazzle everyone around him, but once the couple are married, it transpires that Drew's charm is only skin-deep - he is a greedy gambling addict with a penchant for other women.

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 the truth unfurls, the passion, emotion and astounding love that blossomed in San Francisco forty years earlier is revealed, and three generations of one family are tested to their limits.