On Langsdale the children, Etty, Darcy, Ruan and Louisa are growing up with the close friendship between Etty and Darcy blossoming into love. Etty, with a talent equal to her mother's, dreams of becoming a famous opera singer, while Darcy, denied the right to formal education because of his aboriginal blood, becomes embittered. The bitterness is exacerbated when he is banned from entering the theatre to hear Etty sing. Believing their lives have now moved too far apart he decides to marry Louisa. However the tragedy that took place in Cornwall a generation before will impact on all three lives.