When seventeen-year-old Belinda Phillips falls in love with an Anglo-Indian officer, she knows he will never marry her. When he is reported killed in action, Belinda discovers she is pregnant. Facing disgrace and ruin she accepts an arranged marriage with a middle-aged widower, keeping the secret of her child's birth forever. Reluctantly she sends her beloved daughter Cassy, to a foster mother, Biddy Henchard. When Biddy dies suddenly, ten-year-old Cassy, left destitute, hopes to find the mother she so longs for...