Jennifer Longbridge was only fifteen years old when she fell pregnant. Growing up in a Northern steel town in the post war years, the scandal of an illegitimate child was unthinkable and Jenny took the secret of ther perpetrator's identity with her when she died in childbirth. But her tiny twins, a girl and a boy, stubbornly refused to die too.

Brought up by their grandfather and fiercely protective grandmother, Jenny and David's family is a tightly knit unit. For all his life, David has watched over his sister. Loving her. Protecting her. Smothering her. And Jenny grows daily more like their beautiful mother, until one sunny afternoon tragedy strikes and their peace is shattered for ever ...