At twenty-five, teacher Phyllis Bird is still living with her parents in a quiet Hampshire village. With so many young men lost in the Great War, including her own brothers, her life is empty and her future without hope. Until, desperate to break out of her mundane existence, she decides to take up the position of nursery maid in the London home of acclaimed playwright Harold Berridge. Befriended by the actress Maud Ling and thrown into the glamorous but fickle world of the cinema, Phyllis falls passionately in love with Maud's younger brother Teddy. But Teddy's heart lies elsewhere, and when tragedy strikes the Berridge household a heartbroken Phyllis is forced to leave. Six months later, Phyllis has started to rebuild her life but her world is turned upside down once more when she is invited to a party at Maud Ling's film studios. For there she falls under the spell of the charming but devious American actor Denver Towers, with disastrous consequences...