In 1914 Jessie's widowed mother brings in the creepy Mr Morgan to run her small-town Lancashire bakery and then her life. Jessie finds solace in the company of Bob, her father's apprentice, who she considers a friend. She has been walking out with Arthur, a boy of her own age, but Arthur volunteers for the army and is soon presumed killed. Before leaving, Arthur secreted messages to his love behind a heart-shaped stone wedged in a dry-stone wall and this is where Jessie comes to for solace. Eventually, after war's end in 1918, Arthur returns, but does Jessie's heart still belong to him?