Frank hasn't spoken to his wife Maggie for six months.
For weeks they have lived under the same roof, slept in the same bed and eaten at the same table - all without words.
Maggie has plenty of ideas as to why her husband has gone quiet, but it will take another heartbreaking turn of events before Frank finally starts to unravel the secrets that have silenced him.
Is this where their story ends?
Or is it where it begins?
Manchester, 1960.
When you’re young, unmarried and pregnant, in a shaming society that will never understand, there’s only one place left to go. St Ann’s mother and baby home.
That’s how restless Joan, who dreams of a glamorous new life in the Big Smoke, finds herself shut away with two unlikely new roommates: spirited Megan and timid country-girl Caroline, who fell pregnant on her first time. Abandoned by their families, they have no one to rely on but each other, as they wait out the days before they birth their babies — only to be parted from them forever.
On a sultry May night, before the stroke of midnight, three baby girls are born — and given away to three eagerly waiting families.