During and after the Second World War, Harold, a young sailor in the British Merchant Navy, serving on the Queen Mary, falls in love with the wild, impetuous Kate. But Kate's dreams to become an actress and a singer, and her growing success, prevent her from making a life with Harold. So Harold meets and marries Maggie... Fifty years later, Gregory, the middle-aged son of Harold and Maggie, hears the tumultuous story of his parents' lives from the now elderly Kate, living in present day Switzerland. What he learns turns his life upside down. This is a confronting and moving love story, set mainly against the background of wartime and postwar Britain. Who we are, who we choose to become; the decisions we make and their consequences. This is the stuff of life with which the story confronts the reader.