The year is 1919 and the population of Great Britain is still struggling to its feet after the atrocities of the First World War. Progress is slow, even in the village of Broughton Underhill, on the edge of the Black Country. Gradually, soldiers return, wounds begin to heal and people try to move on with their lives. But for the Wentworth family, this proves to be impossible. Former police sergeant Herbert Reardon has returned to the village determined to find out what happened the night Marianne Wentworth was drowned in the lake all those years ago, when the war was just beginning.