When Dorothy Linford marries former German internee, Franz Hartmann, at the end of WWI, she's cast out by her father, Joseph, patriarch of the successful Linford family.Dorothy and Franz go to live in a village in south-west Germany, where they have a daughter and son. Throughout the early years of the marriage, which are happy ones, Dorothy is secretly in contact with her sister, Nellie, in England.Back in England, Louisa Linford, Dorothy's cousin, is growing into an insolent teenager, forever at odds with her parents, Charles and Sarah, and with her wider family, until she faces a dramatic moment of truth.Life in Germany in the early 1930s darkens, and to Dorothy's concern, what had initially seemed harmless, gradually assumes a threatening undertone.Brought together by love, but endangered by acts beyond their control, Dorothy and Franz struggle to get through the changing times without being torn apart.