
Hannah Kirk and Alice Moran have been friends since childhood. Growing up in the back streets of historic Chester at the beginning of the 1900s they are used to supporting each other when family life gets tough. But when Alice's mother dies in childbirth, Hannah fears for her friend who will be left to defend her sensitive brother - who has been mute since birth - from her violent father's temper.
Hannah's worst fears are confirmed when Alice becomes the only witness to a violent crime when her father attacks Susannah Kirk - Hannah's mother. As Alice tries to escape her father's clutches, Hannah is struggling with the consequences of her mother's accident. Torn apart through circumstance, will the two girls ever be free of the weight of the past, or will the years of guilt and pain that now separate their lives become too much of an obstacle to overcome?