Spanning some forty years the lives of three families are held together by love, intrigue and marriage. Freddie Chivington and Toby Marsh are best friends. Toby's younger sister Olivia has always tagged along in their escapades but Freddie and Olivia are no longer children and their feelings for each other have grown into a deep love. Whilst assisting his best friend Freddie to gain favour with Olivia, Toby Marsh meets Philomena Granger, a colleague of Olivia's and so the Marsh family evolve. The Conte and Contessa Baldini, Vincent and Elizabeth, found happiness from auspicious beginnings but became the adoring parents of two sons and a daughter. After a lapse of over thirty years, the families are reunited by the marriage of Antonio Baldini and Lucy Chivington and so begin the ties which will bind them together forever.