It's the 1970s, in the coastal town of Longsands. Tim is easy-going and contented but Katie refuses to be thwarted in her desire to move up in the world. But her drastic solution to finding money to fund the first steps on the property ladder rebounds on her, with devastating effects. Meanwhile, Gordon and Maureen move to the affluent area of the South Coast town with their small baby when Gordon's firm relocates from London. Four people, tossed together by the hand of fate, whose loves and lives are turned upside down ...