Destitute after the Second World War, Magda Janek settles in the Welsh town of Pontypridd, to build a new life for herself and her baby daughter, Helena.

Magda is desperate for Helena to fulfil the ambitions she once cherished for herself; dreams cruelly snatched from her by the war.

But 1960s' Pontypridd is a place of opportunity - and Magda's daughter has beauty, confidence and prospects beyond her mother's wildest imaginings. At twenty-one, with her wedding to the handsome Ned just around the corner, Helena's life is a happy one.

But then tragedy strikes, revealing a bitter secret, a secret so explosive that her mother carried it to the grave ..