Every year Fay Marlow dreads her birthday, and resists the efforts of her sister Ellie and of her four daughters to turn it into a family occasion. It is a constant reminder of the pain and betrayal of that distant birthday, in 1973, when her first husband, the glamorous Jeremy Page, abandoned Fay and their baby daughter Laura. Even though Fay is married again, to Jeremy's friend Patrick, she can never forget her first love. So when Jeremy returns out of the blue to the small town of Rushyford, twenty years later, Fay's daughters, and their aunt Ellie, have good reason to feel uneasy...