September 1940. Staff Nurse Polly Brown has been granted a posting at Cliffehaven Memorial Hospital on the south coast to be near her badly injured husband, Jack. But her decision has meant that she has had to part with their beloved five-year-old daughter, Alice, who is traveling to safety in Canada. Polly's heart is torn in two as she says good bye to Alice and heads to the Beach View Boarding House in Cliffehaven. Here she befriends a young polish woman, Danuta, who has lost her entire family in the war. Although Danuta is a qualified nurse the matron at Cliffehaven Memorial refuses to believe her and she is forced to work there as a skivvy. And just as Polly is trying to come to terms with the fact that Jack is unlikely to survive his injuries, a telegram arrives at Beach View. The boat Alice was on has been torpedoed by a German U-boat . . .