When her parents and younger sister Jess move to colonial Singapore, Judith Dunbar is enrolled in St. Ursula's, an English boarding school, where she makes friends with classmate Loveday Carey-Lewis.

When Aunt Louise is killed in an automobile accident, Judith inherits her considerable estate, meaning she can live as an independent woman for the rest of her life.

When Loveday's fiancé Gus goes missing in action she believes he is dead, and marries her farmer friend, Walter.

On leave in London, Judith meets Jeremy Wells, a doctor who was a frequent visitor to Nancherrow.

As the war ends, Judith anxiously seeks news of her family, who were caught in the Fall of Singapore.

The serial was shot at numerous locations in Cornwall, including Godrevy, Lamorna, Lelant, Marazion, Penzance, Porthgwarra, Prideaux Place, and St Michael's Mount, as well as Wrotham Park in Hertfordshire.