It is 1919, and as the First World War draws to an end, 15-year-old Emily Parish is poised to follow her mother into service. Her father, a gamekeeper on the Melham Estate, has become a victim of the war, like many others, lost in the fields of France. A new young teacher, Kitty Bell, arrives at Melham village school and enters Emily for her scholarship to Brammerton High School against her mother’s wishes and with the aid of Lady Louise Grayson, a young widow at Farnwell Hall, uncovers the mystery of Emily’s parentage and finds the love that has previously eluded her.

Emily’s mother, Annie Parish, is offered the position of cook in the newly renovated Farnwell Hall, the old seat of the Graysons, now occupied by Vivienne Stratton-Smith, Louise’s sister-in-law, an inveterate fighter for women’s rights and her husband, a liberal MP.