1946: For the widowed young mother Kay Fitzpatrick the return from the all-enveloping heat of wartime Alexandria to the chill of post-war England is both an alien experience and a homecoming. For Laurenz and Patrizia Gold, Jewish refugees scarred by their flight from Nazi-occupied Austria, the bleak repatriation camp outside Priorton represents a chance to establish new roots. While lonely Kay struggles to find an identity of her own in a town full of family history, Laurenz Gold's ruthless hunger will stop at nothing to make his new life a success. But, in a land slowly recovering from the exhaustion of war, will the tormented past which drives Laurenz so fiercely destroy the fragile hopes of those around him?