Liverpool, 1942. Maxine is haunted by the ghosts of a shameful past. She is unable to get close to her fellow staff at the Dr Barnado's Orphanage where she works as a nurse, for fear they might uncover her secret. So Maxine finds a friend in an unexpected place: Peter, a six-year-old orphan with a secret of his own. Meanwhile, during Maxine's visits to her family home, she encounters two men from her past, with very different outcomes. Crofton is a naval officer now, and their attraction is instant - but how can Rose be with him if she can never be honest? And then there's the father of her child, who rejected her when she was pregnant. Can Maxine ever come clean about her past?