Tanwen and Donna Evans are twins but could not be more different. Tanwen is pretty, pert, a bubbly extrovert but very selfish and as slim and sharp as a needle. Donna is plain, placid and shy, although very warm-hearted and as sturdy and useful as a pin.

In 1924, when the girls are fourteen, their mother Gwyneth insists both become apprentices at the Cardiff Drapers, where she once worked. Her dressmaking pays little and the girls’ wages will help bring more money in.

Tanwen is in great demand when she becomes the store model, but much to both girls’ dismay, Gwyneth insists Donna goes along with her sister when she has a date. Donna ends up in the company of a boy she doesn’t like —until she meets tall, handsome Dylan Wallis and falls in love. But Tanwen sets her heart on Dylan with disastrous consequences for them all. . .