In 1875, 18-year-old would-be poet Jack Brennan runs away from home to avoid being pushed into the priesthood. Life soon looks rosy for Jack when he lands the teaching job he's always dreamed of and meets the love of his life, Eliza Hewlett. But his world is shattered when Mary Ellen, his landlord's daughter, falsely accuses him of fathering the child she is expecting. Jack and Eliza decide to escape to America. As they are about to sail, Jack is arrested and dragged from the ship, leaving Eliza alone en route to New York with only a few shillings in her pocket. 

Since escaping his family’s notoriety in Australia, Will Kidd has been content to live the life of a wanderer, but everything changes when he comes face to face with a ghost from his past on a cloudy beach in Liverpool. Every step of Hannah Dawson's life has been laid out for her...until she meets Will. Their love is forbidden, and forces on all sides divide them. They will have to fight against the odds to find their way back to one another.

1917 and the First World War is casting a dark shadow over the Harvey family. With one brother dead and Tristan serving at the front, young Ben is desperate to serve, despite his engagement to Emilia. But a dreadful eye injury forces him to stay at the family farm with his brother Alec, a man with secrets of his own.

Evie Fraser, paid companion to a crotchety spinster, seems destined for a lonely life. Then, out of the blue, a marriage proposal arrives by post. She met the handsome Douglas Barrington just once - at his wedding - but never forgot him. Now widowed, plantation owner Douglas offers her a new life on the lush, exotic island of Penang. How can Evie resist? 

Hong Kong, 1950: Rowena's daughter, conceived during the horrors of the Japanese invasion, is safely at boarding school. Her great love, Connor O'Connor, is by her side. But just as they begin planning a new life together, bad news comes. A female doctor is urgently needed in Seoul. The powers that be would like Rowena to go. At first she plans to refuse until rumours begin to swirl that the sinister, beautiful man who held her captive during the war may still be alive and looking for her. Korea on the brink of war seems safer by comparison. Except that of course it isn't.

From peaceful Scotland to war-ravaged Europe, two female doctors from very different backgrounds fight to succeed and survive. Upper-class Lucy Graham is expected simply to marry well. Poverty-stricken Rosie Nesbitt struggles just to get by. Both girls share the unlikely dream to become a doctor, and each will do anything to succeed. When their paths cross at a party filled with eligible bachelors, it soon becomes clear that their chosen career isn't the only desire they share.

India, 1940. And Rosie is devastated by the sudden death of her beloved mother. The parties, smiles, and games disappear, and although Rosie is desperate to stay in her home, her father cannot look after her. All alone in the world, she is sent to Sri Lanka to live with her mother’s friend Silvia and her three sons. Time passes, and Rosie flourishes in her new home amongst the mango trees and canna lilies. And one day, under the heat of the Sri Lankan sun, she falls in love for the first time. But her happiness is short lived, for the brutal war is creeping closer.

In this evocative tale of life in India between the wars, friendships will be tested and loyalties torn. But can love win the day?

It’s 1837, and immigrating to a small New Zealand fishing village is an opportunity for Ida Lange’s family to build a better future. Yet for Ida, raised in a strict, religious, tight-knit German community, so much is still forbidden to a woman. Yearning for the poor day laborer she shared books with as a child, Ida is now trapped in a dire marriage to a man of her father’s choosing. 

Minnie is supposed to find a nice man, get married and have children. The problem is it doesn’t appeal to her at all. She is working as a secretary but longs to make a difference. Then, one day, she gets her chance. She is recruited by the British government as a spy. Under strict instructions not to tell anyone, not even her family, she moves to London and begins her mission - to infiltrate the Communist movement.

When Caroline meets Kamal, the attraction is instant. He's enchanting, charismatic, and she can't wait to set up a new life with him in India. Both their families are against the union, but Caroline is convinced they'll come round, especially when she gives birth to a beautiful daughter, Asha.

In 1944, British bomber pilot Hugo Langley parachuted from his stricken plane into the verdant fields of German-occupied Tuscany. Badly wounded, he found refuge in a ruined monastery and in the arms of Sofia Bartoli. But the love that kindled between them was shaken by an irreversible betrayal. Nearly 30 years later, Hugo's estranged daughter, Joanna, has returned home to the English countryside to arrange her father's funeral. Among his personal effects is an unopened letter addressed to Sofia. In it is a startling revelation.

When the Berlin Wall goes up, Karin is on the wrong side of the city. Overnight, she’s trapped under Soviet rule in unforgiving East Berlin and separated from her twin sister, Jutta. Karin and Jutta lead parallel lives for years, cut off by the Wall. But Karin finds one reason to keep going: Otto, the man who gives her hope, even amidst the brutal East German regime. 

Glasgow, 1928. Margaret Bannatyne lost both of her brothers in the Great War and is now the last remaining child of wealthy and powerful shipyard owner William Bannatyne. Without a male heir to carry on the family business, William expects his daughter to do her duty, marry well and provide him with a grandson to inherit his business. Margaret cares deeply for her father, but she has ambitions of her own: after witnessing a horrific accident when she was 16, she's determined to become a doctor.

It’s 1925, and Kate Cameron is just sixteen when she’s taken on at a shipyard on the Clyde. Kate’s wages are needed, and her school days are over abruptly. When Kate starts attending art classes at weekends, she meets Jack Drummond, whose world is far removed from her own. But Kate’s not equipped to recognise trouble when it’s disguised by charm.