Liz MacMillan has wanted to be a nurse since her baby brother died of diptheria, but her domineering father won't allow it. On the outbreak of war, nursing becomes a patriotic duty and Liz gets her chance, together with her new friend Helen Gallagher, whose large, Irish-Catholic family provides a striking contrast to the constraint of the MacMillan household. Helen thinks that charming, handsome medical student Adam Buchanan has a crush on Liz, but Liz only has eyes for another medic, Italian Mario Rossi, and she's devastated when he's shipped to Canada as an enemy alien when Italy enters the war. But life goes on, and as a nurse through the Clydebank Blitz Liz sees her share; of loss, too. If and when Mario returns, will he still be the man for the older and wiser Liz - or will another, familiar face have grown more dear?