It's 1942 and the Belleville family, with a fortune built in the early days of Australia, seems impregnable but the war and its aftermath will change their lives forever. In book one, the Belleville children, brought up at the beautiful Prior Park, come of age. There's Julia, the youngest child and only daughter, whose life is changed forever by the events of the war. Elder son Richard sets off for adventure, leaving behind the woman he loves, to fly bombing raids over Germany. Will she wait for him or will she, in his absence, turn elsewhere? And what of Catherine, the beautiful English aristocrat he befriends during his time in England. On his return to Australia, Richard, with his younger brother William, make uncomfortable discoveries about their own father, Francis, which they are desperate to keep from their domineering mother Elizabeth Belleville. And what of US Army Captain Dr Philippe Duval who has captured Julia's heart? Can the letter he discovers after the war among his late mother's belongings bring them back together or will he be too late? This is a dramatic family saga spanning the generations of the Belleville family, their lives, their loves, their disappointments and the secrets they must hide.