The lives and loves of young nurses at the Nightingale Hospital in the 30s entwine with the stories of the ward sisters, each with her own heart-rending secret. Â Â Â Â Â To the Nightingale student nurses, the ward sisters are heartless, hard to please harridans, with impossibly high standards. But what makes a woman give up any hope of family life to care for the sick?
     Take Violet Tanner, the new Night Sister. Who is she, and where did she come from? She is certainly giving nothing away -- her story seems to change every time she tells it. The other sisters soon grow suspicious -- and one of them is determined to get to the bottom of the mystery. Or Sister Blake, best friend of Matron Kathleen Fox. No one -- not even Matron -- has ever guessed the full extent of Sister Blake's secret heartache. What will happen when her skeletons come rattling out of the closet? And then there is Sister Holmes, struggling with a promise she cannot keep. How long will it be before she cracks? And who will suffer the fallout when she does?