Maurice Curtis was born in 1908, while Josephine Haslam was born in 1916, and during their courtship, they nicknamed each other Ferdie and Toots respectively. Ferdie narrates his story in 1947, just before he marries his sweetheart, while Toots carries on with the story after that date. Ferdie's story reflects his father's life in the Royal Irish Constabulary, especially in Limerick, and later in Dublin, and follows on with his own life in the hotel industry. Toots life on a Laois farm was more serene, although her father was not present for her birth, because he was in Mesopotamia (Iraq) during the First World War. Her nurse's training in London had just finished, when the outbreak of the Second World War forced her to return to neutral Ireland. Spending the rest of her life in Dublin, she reared six children by herself, after her beloved husband died in 1964. This is a real love story.