The Journey

In 1952, the farmer Ben Morris meets Lucy Baker and her daughter Mary beside a churchyard grave. The headstone says the man buried there, Barney Davidson, made "the greatest sacrifice of all." Ben is drawn to Mary, and he sets out to find what the inscription means.

The story then moves back to 1930s England. Lucy is shunned by her community after she becomes pregnant by Edward Trent, a man known for chasing women, and she has no wish to keep the child a secret from anyone she trusts.

Her friend Bridget takes her in, and Lucy raises her son Jamie under Bridget's roof. In time her life becomes tangled with Barney Davidson and his family, and the bonds between them are tested by betrayal and divided loyalties.

Two timelines run side by side in this English family saga, one in the postwar years and one in the decade before. Heartbreak and lasting love drive the older thread, while Ben's search in 1952 shows how the choices of one generation reach the next.