Two abandoned children are brought up in an all girls' orphanage until they are deemed old enough to fend for themselves in the outside world. Bella Jones is eighteen and Anne Marie O'Shea is sixteen when they find a kind of freedom thus far alien to them. It is 1959 and the girls deal differently with their new lives and their relationship is challenged in ways they could not have anticipated. When tragedy strikes, one is left to cope with what life throws at her. Will her inborn strength of character inspire her to achieve success alone in spite of her insular upbringing, or will she decide to look for the person who gave her life, knowing she might be disappointed with what she finds?