On the night of the 1953 Coronation ceremony, the expatriate community in Hong Kong has gathered for a celebration party, and while they strain their ears to hear the proceedings on a faulty wireless, Joy, a rebellious 21 year-old, falls in love at first sight. She is engaged within twenty-four hours, but then will not see her fiancé again for a year...

Nearly forty years later, Joy is living in a damp-ridden manor house in southern Ireland with her rapidly deteriorating husband, while her estranged daughter and grand-daughter are drifting apart from each other in suburban England. When the three women are finally brought together, a deeply buried family secret is uncovered and some fundamental issues addressed: about the conflict between love and duty, about mothers and daughters, and about women's choices.