Trevander, clinging to the wild Cornish coast... Three young women - the divorcee, the evacuee and the dancer - harbour secrets of love, loss and betrayal which will bridge the centuries. Lillie probes the mystery surrounding her grandfather's disappearance at sea; Barbara tastes first love, at sixteen, obsessed by the wartime fugitive concealed in deserted Rosmelyn; whilst Polly, bound by loyalty to the Vivyans of Menalowen, pursues a career unthinkable for a country parson's daughter. With the advent of the Chestnut Tiger the lives of Lillie, Barbara and Polly become irrevocably entwined though the women themselves are destined never to meet.