It's 1935 and Maggie Ross loves her life amongst the stallholders in Kelvin Market where her husband Tony has a bric-a-brac stall and where she lives, with her young family, above Mr Goldman's bespoke tailors. But when one fine Spring day her husband disappears into thin air her world collapses.

Maggie has no way of knowing where he husband went nor why he left her so suddenly - especially when she's got a new baby on the way. What she can tell is who her real friends are as she struggles to bring her children up alone. There's outspoken, golden-hearted Winnie, her fellow stallholder whose cheerful chatter hides a sad past, and cheeky Eve whom she's known since they were girls. And there's also Inspector Matthews, the policeman sent to investigate her husband's disappearance;a man who, to the Kelvin Market staffholders, is on the wrong side of the law, a man to whom Maggie is increasingly drawn.