When her beloved grandfather dies in 1958, Polly Merton is forced to share her home with a woman she scarcely knows: the mother who abandoned her. Sadie Merton, glamorous and selfish, has her own set of morals and Polly is appalled by her scandalous lifestyle. Ashamed and resentful, she takes refuge in her friends and her college studies.

Then Polly's love of France takes her to Paris. And after a chance encounter her life will never be the same again.

Prize-winning novelist Margaret Kaine brilliantly evokes the way of life of a bygone era, a time when the tragic memories of wartime were at last giving way to a new generation's hopes and dreams.