Britain, midwinter 1980-81. Before the New Year arrives, the lives of four young people will be transformed when they are brought into contact after a tragic train crash. Mary Hogg, is the senior staff nurse in an Intensive Therapy Unit of a small English hospital; Jason MacDonald is a surgical registrar in St Martha's hospital; Francesca Turning is returning to her Edinburgh teaching hospital; and reporter Dave Oliver is traveling north for a Hogmanay story - and becomes front page news himself. As the four lives collide, a searing hospital romance evolves...