Jess and Nancy, girls from very different backgrounds, are nursing in France during the Great War They have much in common for both have lost their lovers in the trenches, so when the war is over and they return to nurse in Liverpool, their future seems bleak Very soon, however, their paths diverge Nancy marries an Australian stockman and goes to live on a cattle station in the Outback, while Jess marries a Liverpudlian In the thick of the blitz during the second World War their children are drawn together and torn apart