Though Britain is at peace, poverty and rationing still make life hard for Frank Maguire, his wife Anne and family To Anne's further sorrow, her daughter has married a GI and is taking Anne's grandchild to the United States, leaving Anne with grief and a guilty secret Anne's sister Esther, soon to marry Howard Brenton the Conservative MP and former mine owner, will also change the face of the retail trade for good As postwar optimism leads to the prosperity and political scandals of the sixties, these characters head towards their own personal Jerusalem