Having spent her childhood with a cold, unfeeling stepmother, Lily Clair's life is changed for ever when she is sent as general maid to old friends of her family. For soon into the dull routine comes Joel, handsome son of a wealthy entrepreneur. For Lily, young and vulnerable, their meeting is a revelation. Riding high on the crest of her new-found happiness she cannot be prepared for the violent attack that comes in the night, neither for its devastating, life-changing consequences. But live with the consequences she must as, with a heart torn, she deals with one hand of fate after another.