Beautiful and talented Mary Sutton grows up in the Victorian rural scene of her father's thriving carriage-making business. She meets Kester, who comes seeking work. He's handsome, interesting, a man with a past. Without realising it Mary falls in love with him.She then learns she is not who she thought she was, but the result of a dalliance between her father as a young man and an aspiring singer - a gift which Mary has inherited. Her father married and his new wife accepted Mary as her own. Mary however cannot forgive. She seeks out her natural mother and leaves home for a career on stage. But she cannot forget Kester...