For eighteen year old Lena O'Sullivan, life is predictable and dull. A future of hard work, marriage to a local boy, and a family of her own one day is all she has to look forward to. People from her background know not to expect too much, but Lena yearns for something different. Malachy Berger was different, for him, the world is at his feet. An only child of a wealthy, if peculiar father, a large inheritance, a beautiful house and a fine education are his due. Nobody is in favour of Lena and Malachy's friendship, but why not? What harm are they doing? Why is everyone so dead set against it? Then fate takes a hand, and Lena realises that secrets and lies have bound her and Malachy in an impossible situation. And their future seems determined by events that happened long before they were born. From rural Ireland to post-war Cardiff, Lena and Malachy's story winds its way back to wartime Germany and occupied France in a web of deceit that threatens to destroy them both.