Eddie Bairstow was a conscript during the Great War. Later, knowing he had no hope of making doing what he loved most, writing verse, he had no option but to follow his family into 'business'. But he liberated his creativity by writing the story of his life which he bequeathed to his daughters Juliet and Alison.
Sally, Jennie and Caroline are all brought together at the outbreak of war in 1939. Though from all different backgrounds, they are brought up together amidst international and domestic conflict. As the girls grow up in war time, we follow them into the 1950s as they make their beginnings in work and love.
Having left her village to seek her fortune in London, Jane Banham falls in love with a mysterious poet