The FitzDeanes are powerful. They have estates in England, a castle in Ireland and a growing shipping business in Liverpool. But in Ireland, during the famine, a great and terrible mistake was made, which has come to haunt the family for generations. Now young Ruby Flynn, rescued when the rest of her family died during the storms of 1947, reared and educated by nuns, arrives at Ballyford Castle, to work as a nursery maid. It is a fateful turning point for the FitzDeanes - and above all, for the beautiful and feisty Ruby Flynn herself.