Set against the historical backdrop of the social and political changes of the first half of the 20th century including both the first and second world wars, we follow the tragic lives of the working class Clarke family as they experience , loss and the horrors of war. Their eldest daughter Frances is a lonely and unusual girl who lives a better life in her mind and feels a greater connection to the spirits of her deceased sisters, Josephine and Ruby than those around her. As Frances grows older the intensity of these paranormal visitations only increase.  Lost love and unforeseen tragedies leave Frances bound to hold a terrible secret and to keep it, she must retreat even further away from real life, leaving her with only the ghosts of her family for company. 
  
The world moves on and Frances slips away from the world of the living, happier in the company of ghosts. Trapped in a love triangle between the dependable but broken Alfie who has loved her since childhood and Hugh her teenage sweetheart, whose higher class prevents them from being together. Hugh still loves for Frances and longs to escape his failing marriage, but fate conspires against them. Forced together by the necessities of the second world war Frances and Alfie must form a life together, while she struggles with her romantic feelings for Hugh, the nightly visitations of her family’s ghosts and a far, far darker secret which must never be uncovered.