Trained paramedic and ambulance driver Kate Henderson is still wrestling with grief after witnessing the shooting death of her diplomat father seven years earlier, when her life is drastically interrupted once more when she wakes up to the whistle of a bomb screaming toward her house. The explosion injures Kate and kills her mother and aunt. Claire Giroux, a kind doctor and family friend, invites Kate to live with her as she recuperates. This arrangement works well for them until a few months later when Claire's husband comes home from the war. Within days the lives of both women are drastically changed, and events are set in motion, both in England and in Canada, that challenge Kate and Claire to their limits.