After losing her family in the Blitz, Maddy Belfield is sent to live with relatives in the Yorkshire Dales and, en route, she befriends Gloria and Sid Conley, abandoned by their desperate mother. Eager to help the war effort, Maddy's Aunt Plum has opened up a home for 'difficult' evacuees, and Maddy and Gloria quickly become part of a motley crew, including headstrong Greg and flighty Enid. The friendship endures into adulthood, until a tragic accident tears them apart, but years later when Fate reunites them all, a visit to Yorkshire reveals the truth - a revelation that has unimaginable consequences.