Liverpool 1917 Stella Bennett is sixteen and so beautiful that Michael Gallagher, an Irishman fighting with the British Navy, falls in love with her on sight when he comes ashore in Liverpool when his ship needs repairs. The young couple fall in love and want to marry but the Bennett family is horrified as they have other plans for Stella but the young couple know their own minds and are set on marriage. hen Stella gives birth to a baby, Virginia, but Michael is dismayed by the child's ginger hair when he sees her and is convinced that she is not his child. However he agrees to support her financially, and returns to Ireland. But things go badly wrong and very soon, young Ginny is struggling to exist. She decides she must better herself and the obvious way to do this is to find her father who has left no forwarding address...