Bethany Masterton is a fighter. So when her life changes drastically with the marriage of her widowed mother Alice to Harold Warden, a chauvinistic, autocratic accountant, she remains adamant that no one will stop her achieving her ambitions. But the Warden family is not the picture of respectability which is shown to the world. It's a family hiding twisted concepts of love and loyalty, greed and obsession...

Too strong-willed to be controlled by her stepbrother, Giles, Bethany befriends his twin sister Louise - with disastrous consequences, for Giles has possessively ruled his twin for too long to allow anyone to come between them - and Bethany's involvement is something he cannot tolerate.

But the real tragedy strikes the day after Louise's engagement. It's a tragedy with repercussions which will continue to haunt Bethany through the fifties, threatening to destroy her happiness, along with the success she has carved for herself and the lives of those she cherishes most.