On Christmas morning Kitty Doherty gives birth to her baby - who is immediately taken away for adoption in America. But Kitty's life is hanging by a thread, her only hope a dangerous journey through snow to Ballymara and her Irish family. Meanwhile, in Chicago, Sean and Alice try to set up a new life, far away from the families they have deserted in Liverpool.
The third novel in Annie Murray's "Birmingham" series. While Genie's father is away fighting in World War II, her mother has a ruinous affair which leaves her pregnant; Genie's little brother leaves, never to return; while Genie herself meets a man who then disappears to war.