When Dorothy Mortimer, the daughter of a wealthy Merseyside family, becomes pregnant, she is sent away to the Benders, family friends in Wales. Dorothy wants nothing to do with her daughter Lizzie, so Clarissa Bender arranges for the child to be brought up by the O'Malleys, a feckless family living on the estate. Lizzie is unaware of her parentage, but her brother Joey becomes suspicious of the special attention she receives from the Benders and eventually he takes Lizzie to Merseyside, where Lizzie finds she is increasingly drawn to the family she has never known . . .