When trouble struck her three daughters Ailsa MacFarlane found herself torn between them. Isobel, on a holiday in Castildoro at her husband's archaeological dig, was caught up in a revolution, unable to return to their three children in Yorkshire. Dorrie, up in Scotland, was pregnant with twins following a previous miscarriage, while Kristy had put her promising acting career and her relationship with Josh Elliot on hold, to care for Isobel's children.