Janet Ferrier and Martin Everett had known each other years ago, before she qualified as a nurse and he as a doctor. Their friendship was just a faint, dream-like memory in her mind, certainly not a force powerful enough to influence her decisions about the future. Then Martin came back into her life, and the spark of feeling between them leaped up into a flame, but by that time Janet was engaged to Ellis Spencer-Wroe -- the surgeon to whom both she and Martin owed an immeasurable debt of gratitude and loyalty.