A young girl stands alone in the cobbled market place of a small Lincolnshire town, bedraggled, soaked through and very afraid. No one knows or cares who she is or where she has come from. Only kindly farmer, Eddie Appleyard, recognises something in the girl that touches his heart. In a drunken haze Eddie takes her home. His wife Bertha accuses him of infidelity and turns Anna out into the cold, wet night. Eddie hides the girl in a tumbledown shepherd's cottage that becomes her new home.

Anna's arrival will change their lives; Eddie's, Bertha's and even that of their young son, Tony, torn between his warring parents and the mysterious stranger. It will take years for the secrets of Anna's former life to be revealed, but Bertha bides her time and awaits her moment, little realising the tragedy her vengeance will unleash.