When two-year-old John Baron is rescued from war-torn France by his father's cousin, Ben, his future is irrevocably changed. John Baron is brought up as Ben's son, unaware that the family he loves is not his own. In 1919, after only one of Ben's young twin daughters, Samantha, survives the influenza epidemic, the family emigrates from Yorkshire. They settle in rural Australia, and live happily until the children are in their late teens. Then a friend, Cashman, discovers by chance that John Baron and Samantha are not true siblings, but keeps the secret - for despite knowing the strength of their feelings for each other, he is determined to marry Samantha himself. Samantha and Cash begin a turbulent marriage, but the beginning of World War Two tears friends and family apart.