In the early years of the 1960s the market town of Everham is full of rumours and counter-rumours. Dr Leigh McDowall, medical registrar, is taking a refresher course in obstetrics prior to becoming a general practitioner. He is immediately attracted to Dr Shelagh Hammond, obstetric house surgeon, but she is deeply involved with another doctor, Paul Sykes, and is caring for her mother, Bridget, an Irish Catholic with a terminal illness, who has a secret of her own. Leigh watches Shelagh's helpless infatuation for Paul with increasing resentment. Meanwhile Reverend Derek Bolt is troubled by the unwanted attentions of a female parishioner and he confides in headmaster Jeremy North. But Jeremy is also feeling lost as his home life is in disarray and he turns to a hospital sister for comfort. Each is faced with a personal crisis and they resolve to do what is right. Only the right thing doesn't always turn out as planned. Tension bubbles throughout the community, and the interweaving stories of Everham's residents give rise to conflicts that erupt in life-changing decisions and scandals. Set against the back-drop of the Profumo affair that rocked Britain, Everham's own politics reach a dramatic crescendo.