Keith Breconridge is not the heir Lady Edith would have chosen to put the Manor of Breconridge back on the map, but her other sons were killed in the war and now Keith is coming home to be head of the house. It is clear, however, that the masterful Lady Edith intends this to be a courtesy title only - a woman of decided views, she is planning Keith's new life for him with the same authority she uses in running the estate. But soon after Keith arrives her plans go awry, he brings a Janet Grimshaw with him and announces that they are engaged to be married. On the surface Lady Edith takes Janet and her young daughter Phillipa at their face value - a war widow and her child; but she privately sets an enquiry afoot into the truth of Janet's story. As a result she not only unearths the fact that Janet is flying under false colours but also that her husband was a murderer. Keith refuses to believe that such a loveable person as Janet could be capable of culpable deception, but when he taxes her with the evidence she confesses that it was for Phillipa's sake that she tried to blot out the past completely - even from himself. Now Janet must answer for her part as an accessory but Keith promises to do the best he can to help her and that he will be waiting for her. Lady Edith in trying so hard to keep her son, has lost him completely; however, even in the face of defeat, she plans to start again.