Three sisters; three totally different lives. Ellen, generous and capable, runs a billiards hall with her beloved husband Reg. Louise has her eye on better things than the backstreets of Bolton; she's off for a life in the sun with businessman Clem. And Lily, fair and fragile, has lost her feckless man to the war, and can barely cope with her two small daughters. But whatever problems they face, the solutions are all in the family. Ellen has love to spare, and who better to lavish it on than her niece? Louise regards a child as a necessary accessory for her glamorous social position in Australia. Lily's just plain grateful. Yet this is not how the next generation sees it. By the time the world is turned inside out by the next war, two young women are set for the deadliest of rivalries as they fall for the same man...