It is the summer of 1939 - the last, glorious summer before the war. In Craigton, a small Scottish seaside-resort, holiday-makers are enjoying a carefree season of tennis-parties, picnics and romance, untroubled by the clouds of war. Lisa Cowan is nineteen, beautiful and innocent. She too falls in love that summer, with Neil McLean, a handsome pilot. But during the years that follow, as hostilities escalate, Lisa and her family suffer their share of hardship and tragedy. Her mother, an art dealer with a secret buried in her past, falls ill, and her brother Tommy is compelled by his principles to become a Conscientous Objector. By the time the war ends Lisa will have grown into a wiser but sadder woman, strong enough to build her mother's art dealership into a successful business, yet vulnerable still to love...