A tender, moving family story set in Aberdeenshire, Edinburgh and London. In 1915, when young Elspeth Gray, ill and heavily pregnant, becomes destitute in a strange city, Helen Watson and her huband, themselves expecting a baby, give the girl a home. However after Elspeth's son is born, Helen loses her infant, and transposes the two births in her mind. With the neighbours also believing that little John is Helen's baby, Elspeth gradually finds herself deprived of the child as well as the man she loved.