This is a story of how fate determines the life we lead, but with either kindness or cruelty.

Although deserts, forests and oceans separated Eddie Fraser, an Australian man, and Tina Morris, a Scottish girl, their lives were destined to entwine. Without the least knowledge of each other’s lives or even the wish to know, they were joined together in a marriage that, since Eddie’s work as a sailor on a merchant ship kept them apart for long periods of time, couldn’t possibly work. Or could it?

Against all odds posed by Tina’s poor health, she gave birth to three children, Maggie, Billy and Eve. And then the first world war, the great war devastated many lives, including Eddie and Tina’s. This is the retelling of how envy and greed for another’s life, love and wealth can dictate and corrupt a mind without conscience or pity.

James Coutts, a man of high standing in a community of mill workers, and his obnoxious daughter, Millicent, enter Tina’s life with devastating consequences. From that point onwards, this story becomes one of horror and treachery. The now grown-up Maggie enters into a battle of wits that only one can win.