After an exotic childhood spent with her army officer father and mother in India, young Amanda Dexter finds it hard to adjust to life in a rainy Lancashire mill town--despite the privileged position her family occupies as mill owners. And her English cousins only make her feel like more of an outsider. Only the friendship of handsome young navy officer Philip Marston and that of Jenny Alsop, a working-class girl who works at her grandfather's mill, help combat her loneliness.

When a scandal involving Jenny surfaces, Amanda is all too happy to leave the family's troubles behind and return to India. Life in the intoxicating social whirl of the Raj in the twenties proves to be very different from Amanda's experience so far. Her marriage to a charming army lieutenant, as well as her travels through the fabulous countries of the Far East, are all to change Amanda from a starry-eyed girl to a mature woman before she sees England again.

Back home, Amanda faces new challenges--for she takes it upon herself to restore her family's ailing fortunes, and she can no longer deny her feelings for an old friend; although she may have to defy her own family in order to win the chance of lasting happiness....