The Second World War is now over and people must count the cost. Three women from very different backgrounds meet when they find themselves on Bristol Temples Meades' station waiting for the return of their loved ones. Edna's fiancee Colin comes home crippled. Charlotte's doctor husband, who was a loving and gentle father, returns a violent, disturbed man with no love for her and even less for their children. Polly, who is waiting for her GI boyfriend Aaron, is once again disappointed when he doesn't come. Adjusting to men who are very changed and, in Polly's case, to no man at all is the core of this enthralling novel. However, during the war years, the women have had to cope. They too have changed and they harbour secrets that would be best kept but, as is the way of things, when they are told, lives are damaged once again.