Julia Hammond takes her daughter Pandora to the seaside, where she is due to recover from a severe asthma attack. On the way there, Julia is forced off the road by a reckless but very charming driver. It is Roger Wills, who immediately starts flirting heavily with her. Julia has nothing against a bit of flirting, but following her break-up, she doesn’t want to get involved in anything more serious. But that changes when she meets the falconer David Norris. Julia feels an immediate attraction, but resists her feelings. Her daughter, however, seeks out David and helps him with the falcons. One morning, Pandora witnesses David’s partner, Roger Willis, loading all the falcons onto his lorry.
    She follows him onto a ship with which he intends to take the birds out of the country. A dramatic rescue mission begins for Julia and David, during which little Pandora also finds herself in danger. Julia is forced off the road by the reckless driver Roger. The accident leads to a brief flirtation, which, after all sorts of turmoil, culminates in a spectacular rescue of the falcons that are due to be taken out of the country on a ship.
    She buys the house where she spent her childhood with her parents and quickly befriends the Ashleys, her new neighbours. Isobel becomes increasingly self-assured, changes her appearance and strikes up a friendship with the doctor, Patrick McLeish. Yet she cannot stop thinking about Henry, and in a letter she asks him to visit her in Cilmoran. When Henry turns up at her door unannounced one day, Isobel realises just how much he still means to her. As he is accompanied by Harriet, who cannot fail to notice how much Isobel has changed for the better, the atmosphere is very tense. Henry has to make a decision.
    When Lilly, a young journalist and heiress to a fortune, returns to Cornwall for her father’s funeral, her life plans to date come crashing down like a house of cards.
At the reading of the will, she learns that she is not his biological daughter. Instead of a huge inheritance, she now finds herself with a job as an ‘advice columnist’ for the in-house magazine. What’s more, her stepmother Nora is doing everything she can to get rid of Lilly again.
    Since her mother died a few years ago, Isobel Cameron has had little time for a private life, what with looking after her elderly father and her job as a university librarian. Just once a week, she goes to the cinema with her boyfriend and colleague Henry Payson, after which they always go out for a meal together. Henry longs to share his life with Isobel and is growing increasingly impatient. He would like to take her to a conference in Italy, but Isobel declines his offer out of consideration for her father.
    When her father dies, days and weeks are spent sorting out his estate, meaning that Isobel and Henry are unable to have a clarifying discussion. It is only when Isobel learns from her solicitor that her father has left her an unexpected fortune that she is able to tell Henry that nothing now stands in the way of a trip to Italy. During her surprise visit, she finds their mutual colleague Harriet at Henry’s house, who is clearly interested in him in more than just a professional capacity. Feeling hurt, Isobel leaves Henry’s house and decides to move to Cilmoran by the sea to fulfil a childhood dream.
    Cornwall, in the freezing January of 1947: Diana Carey-Lewis loses her beloved husband Edgar and her rebellious daughter Loveday, and becomes the sole heir to the family estate, Nancherrow. She tries by every means possible to save the family home, a symbol of bygone days and wealth. In January 1947, Colonel Edgar Cary-Lewis dies. Loveday, Edgar’s sole heir, wants to honour his memory and keep the castle – which is in need of renovation – at any cost, even though her husband Walter strongly advises against it. This is not the only point of contention between the two; Walter feels increasingly misunderstood and visits the sensual Nesta more and more often, whilst Loveday fights to save her marriage for the sake of her son Nat. When Nancherrow is opened to paying visitors, Jess Dunbar, now 16, meets and falls in love with Simon Catto. When Jess finds out she is expecting a child, the two get married. Judith would love nothing more than to take her little sister in with her and her husband Jeremy, but the young couple stay at Nancherrow. Meanwhile, Loveday, who has finally separated from Walter, has returned there and is living with the love of her life, the painter Gus. When she can no longer afford to maintain the castle, Loveday concedes defeat and puts Nancherrow up for auction. The auction ends with a big surprise...
    But Lilly’s life changes when she finds a letter, almost 50 years old and never answered. It had been written by Grace, an American woman, to her great love David whilst she was staying in England. Seeing this story as an opportunity not only to further her career but also to annoy Nora, Lilly writes to Grace. And it works: accompanied by her grandson Nicholas, Grace travels to Cornwall. Despite strong protests from Nicholas, who is worried about his grandmother’s heart condition, Grace sets off with Lilly and Gwyneth to search for David.
    After days of fruitless searching, Lilly and Gwyneth give up, but Grace is not ready to admit defeat and sets out to find her great love on her own. And she succeeds: at an airfield, she sees David again. But the joy and the shock of realising that he is now confined to a wheelchair trigger a heart attack in Grace. Their concern for Grace brings Lilly and Nicholas closer together. And Lilly realises that her feelings are wavering. Is her relationship with Eric really love, or just a decision based on reason? Just as Nicholas is about to confess his love to Lilly, he bursts in on Eric’s marriage proposal. Disappointed, he flies back to the States, unaware that Lilly has turned down the proposal.