This is a four-part family saga set in New South Wales from 1930 to 1960. It reveals how Peter Maynard turns his back on Susan Sheldon, the woman he loves, when she willfully ignores her husband's gambling problem. It is suspected that because of his gambling, she and her husband are killed, and as a result, her only child, Lella, is raised in a household ruled by fear.
Later, although lacking in confidence, Lella is able to use her initiative to establish a business and stand up to her dominant aunt. When Peter Maynard falls ill, Lella, highly successful and happily married, is urgently summoned to his bedside.