Barbara and Ralph, a German couple, have rented a lonely farmhouse on the Yorkshire moors for the Christmas holidays. They hope the long country walks in this beautiful countryside might help them salvage their marriage. They are both lawyers, though Barbara is a well-known and very successful defence attorney while Ralph works in the law department of a bank.
But before their holiday has properly got under way events conspire to thwart their plans: the whole of northern England is thrown into chaos by a terrible storm which covers the land in a thick white carpet of snow. Ralph and Barbara are cut off from the outside world at the remote Westhill Farm. Their isolation soon begins to make them both feel claustrophobic, and instead of taking the opportunity to talk they seek refuge in various activities. Ralph tries to organise some firewood, so life will be more or less bearable even though they have no electricity and there is very little food in the house. Barbara starts to explore the house. Who is Laura, the 70-year-old woman who rented the house to them and has gone to stay with her sister for Christmas? Why did she seem so nervous – afraid, even? And who lived here in the past, in this bleak, remote house? Barbara’s own father was in this part of England for some time during the Second World War. Might she come across some connection to him in the very house where they’re staying?
When Barbara stumbles across a manuscript written by Frances Gray, a secret account of her life, she finds herself thrust into a different world. The Grays had lived at Westhill since the beginning of the 20th century, farming the land for miles around, and Frances was the eldest of two daughters. She apparently hid this account of her life just before she died. Increasingly fascinated by this gripping tale, Barbara traces the story of a woman who seems to have been similar to herself in many ways. Before the First World War Frances Gray joined the suffragettes and demonstrated on the streets of London in support of franchise for women, ending up in prison. This struggle cost her the love of the only man who ever meant anything to her throughout her life: John Leigh, son of a wealthy Yorkshire family. Frances had imagined that the friendship they felt for one another since childhood would prove invincible, but John married her younger sister, Victoria, instead.
Frances struggles on, through the war, inflation and subsequent financial hardships. Though her father rejects her after her time in prison, she keeps the family together through the difficult times and supports them all. She embarks on an affair with John that lasts for years but will never bring her happiness, even after his marriage to Victoria collapses. Barbara’s own marriage is on the rocks, largely because of her own compulsion to succeed and her career ambitions, and she sees Frances’s story as a mirror of the difficulties facing her life today.
Ralph does attempt to bring about a reconciliation, but Barbara is incapable of responding. Now their food supplies are dangerously low, and Ralph heads off on an old pair of skis in an attempt to reach the next village and bring some food back to Westhill.
Barbara returns to the account of Frances Gray’s life. Now England is embroiled in the Second World War. Frances and her sister, now divorced from John, are the last of the family left at Westhill. They live there with a 16-year-old refugee from London called Laura – the old lady who has now rented the house to Barbara and Ralph.
The arrival of German soldier who has been wounded and desperately needs a place to hide turns the world of these three women upside down. They take the enemy soldier man in and care for his wounds, but ultimately his presence sparks off a tragedy that has repercussions right up until the present day...