It is December 1952. A wedding is being planned in April Grove, Portsmouth, and Jess and Frank Budd want to bring together all their friends and neighbours, both from April Grove itself and from Bridge End, where the family was evacuated during the Second World War. They even invite Stella Simmons and her sister Maddy, who now live in the Devonshire village of Burracombe. Dan and Ruth Hodges attend, together with Dan's son Sammy, who immediately falls in love with his childhood playmate Maddy. But Stephen Napier, son of the Squire of Burracombe, proves a strong rival and Maddy is not yet ready to make such a momentous decision about her life. Meanwhile, Ruth's niece Lizzie and her husband Alec seem to have overcome the problems they encountered when Alec returned from the prisoner-of-war camp which almost broke him. But their happiness is threatened when a face from Lizzie's past reappears in her life and turns everything upside down.