The story of Josephine Cox is as extraordinary as anything in her novels. Born in a cotton-mill house in Blackburn, she was one of ten children. Her parents,she says, brought out the worst in each other, and life was full of tragedy and hardship - but not without love and laughter. At the age of sixteen, Josephine met and married ’a caring and wonderful man’, and had two sons. When the boys started school, she decided to go to college and eventually gained a place at Cambridge University, though was unable to take this up as it would have meant living away from home. However, she did go into teaching, while at the same time helping to renovate the derelict council house that was their home, coping with the problems caused by her mother’s unhappy home life and writing her first full-length novel.

Louise and Hunter have a happy, loving marriage, marred only by their unfulfilled longing for a child. Llwng and working with Ben’s father，Ronnie quietly accept their uneventful but contented livesa But when Ronnie dies, their whole world changes.

News of his father’s passing brings Ben’s lazy brother, Jacob, back on the scene, inthe mistaken belief that he stands to inherit Ronnie’s small fortune. Added to which he means to have his brother’s wife; though just as she did years before, Louise warns him off. Jacob, however, is not so easily dismissed.

When he realises it is Ben who will inherit everthing, Jacob is beside himself with rage, and commits a terrible deed，the threatens to destroy everything his brother and Louise hold dear-their home and their family, their friends, their marriage and even their very lives...

PART ONE

SUMMER, 1952 - THE LEGACY

PART TWO

AUGUST, 1952 - NEW BEGINNINGS

PART THREE

WINTER, 1952 - CONSEQUENCES

PART FOUR

FORGIVING