Annie MacPherson

The year is 1928 and Annie Melville has been happily married for 11 years to Euan MacPherson. They have a 10 year old son, Ian, and a daughter, Lexie, from Annie's first marriage to Alex Melville. Annie's links to the past and Billy Dawson seemed to have weakened with the passing of time, but when Billy's daughter, Nancy, is threatened by her obsessive stepfather, Joe Cassiday, both Billy and Annie are forced together again and have to face the deep emotional response their meeting has aroused, as it surfaces again.

Annie has to seek Billy's help too for her own daughter, Lexie, who wants to work in the mill as a Weaver, like her mother and again, he comes to Annie's rescue, causing waves of guilt to envelope her every time Euan shows his deep love for her.

Time and again, fate seems to push Annie and Billy towards one another, each recognizing that the bond between them is still there, despite Billy's wife Josie trying to keep them both as far apart as possible, to the extend of trying to ban Lexie from being friends with her own daughter Sarah, on the basis that Lexie is a bad influence on her. Euan too gets brought into the complex situation when Nancy becomes pregnant to her boyfriend Billy Donnelly and he and Billy Dawson join forces to find Billy before the obsessive Joe Cassiday does.

As this historical romance moves onto the lives of Lexie and Nancy, fate has one more hand to deal Annie. A letter arrives from Ireland which disturbs and frightens her and at the christening of Mary Anne, Nancy's newborn daughterf, things come to a head with Billy Dawson, leaving Annie with a decision to make that could chance all of their lives forever.