Ireland, early 1939. Much has changed for the Deverill family and a new generation is waiting in the wings. But eyes are once again turning towards Europe where the storm clouds of war are building. In Dublin, Martha Wallace's feelings of rejection have turned, in an instant, to happiness. Martha came home from America, desperate to track down her birth mother. But instead she has lost her heart to the impossibly charming JP, scion of the Deverill family. Bridie Doyle has come a long way from her humble roots. Now Countess di Marcantonio and mistress of Castle Deverill, she is determined to make the splendid surroundings her home. Her flamboyant husband Cesare has other ideas. And, as his eye strays away from his wife, those close to the couple begin to question his true identity. Kitty Deverill believed that life with her husband Robert and their two children was her destiny, until the return of Jack O'Leary, her first love, as irresistible to her now as he was when they met, years before. But this time Jack's heart belongs elsewhere...