San Francisco, 1904. Georgia Briscoe is unwillingly betrothed to businessman Drew Kemp when she falls for handsome British sailor Ellis Cowper. Drew has the charm to dazzle everyone around him, but once the couple are married, it transpires that Drew's charm is only skin-deep - he is a greedy gambling addict with a penchant for other women. London, 1948. When Chrissie Kemp travels to the Lake District to visit her grandmother Georgia, she is not prepared...