Selma Bartley is 100 years old and only she knows the secret behind a Yorkshire village's refusal to honour its war dead.

She thinks back to a summer day in 1913 when a brush with tragedy bound the fate of two families together.

War begins the following year and and West Sharland sends its men off to fight.

Blacksmith's daughter Selma is left to manage both her family business and her blossoming feelings for aristocrat Guy Cantrell.

Guy is wounded in battle and his identical twin Angus take his place, but his reckless actions in France resulting in catastrophe for the Bartley family back home.

The village turns against the Bartleys and Selma is forced to leave for a new life in America. Meanwhile Guy moves to Pennsylvania with a new identity.

Then two decades later, as war approaches again, the pair are reunited and secrets a resurrected.