Glasgow, Scotland. 1939. On the eve of war, Mirrin Stewart, a newly qualified young teacher, is too absorbed in her own troubles to pay much attention to world affairs. Having lost her mother to cancer at a tender age, she must now face up to the fact that her beloved father is getting older, and needs her care. She has neither the time nor the inclination, it seems, for love or romance. But then two very different young men enter her life: first, Jack Drummond, a farmer from her father's home village. Then Jamie Campbell, a couple of years younger than Mirrin, educated, interesting and, like her, an only child. Over the next few months Mirrin belatedly grows up and, ultimately, discovers her true self.