Margaret Thornton

1960. Having been firm friends ever since they met in a Blackpool boardinghouse five years before, Val, Cissie and Janice are all now happily married, preoccupied with their growing families. But the new decade will bring change for all three families....

1957. Newly-wed Val Walker is looking forward to starting a family....

Having been recently widowed in her 40s, shy Jane Redfern finally plucks up the courage to go on holiday alone. Embarking on a 10-day coach trip to Germany, the last thing she anticipates is to meet someone new and fall in love....

Eighteen-year-old Debbie Hargreaves is heading to college in Leeds, where she'll be sharing digs with three girls....

Happily married to the Reverend Simon Norwood, Fiona Norwood's happiness should be complete....

1990, Blackpool. Thirty-three-year-old Helen Burnside is shocked when she learns that her beloved Great Aunt Alice has died of a sudden heart attack, and even more surprised when she is bequeathed her Yorkshire cottage....