Maureen Jackson is a prisoner of her father's blackmail. Three years ago, she'd been hoping to marry Rory, the man of her dreams. However, after her mother's death, Maureen was left to care for her overbearing father. Now Rory is back in London with his pregnant wife and reminds Maureen of the life that should have been hers. With the war looming, Janet Ashley hopes to marry her sweetheart Mike, but her father refuses to grant them his blessing. Janet finds herself pregnant and her mother Peggy is determined to hold her family together.

When Sally, Beth, Margaret and Rachel meet at a job interview for the wonderful new store in Oxford Street, they have no idea they will become lifelong friends. When all four girls are lucky enough to be selected as sales staff their exciting new adventure begins. Join them as they overcome heartbreak and grief, find love and happiness and remain united in their friendship, whatever life throws at them.

She is a servant girl... When her father becomes ill, Emily Carter finds herself sent into service at Priorsfield Manor in order to provide the family with an income. He will be the Lord of the Manor... Emily strikes up an unlikely friendship with the daughters of the house, as well as Nicolas, son of the Earl. But as the threat of war comes ever closer, she becomes even more aware of the vast differences between upstairs and downstairs, servant and master...If you like Downton Abbey you’ll love this!

1940, Liverpool: Alice Turner and her best friend, Millie Markham, work for the war effort at Rootes munitions factory, making shell caps and Halifax bombers. Alice’s sweetheart, Terry, is home from the front for a brief period of leave. But the honeymoon is soon over. Terry must go back to the dangers of Nazi-occupied France, and the ever-present air raid sirens quickly bring Alice back down to earth. 

After the heartbreak of World War Two, newlywed midwife Cathy hoped Liverpool life would offer some joy. But a terrible miscarriage and the escape of her abusive stepfather Jack from prison make happiness hard to find. Meanwhile, Cathy’s beloved granny is ailing. Whilst at the hospital, Cathy sees her midwifery friends, who are planning to open a home for unmarried mothers. After losing a baby of her own, Cathy would love to help, but for now, she must take care of her grandmother.  

Lavender Road boasts a pawnbroker, a pub, two rows of terraced working class homes and, at one end, the big house owned by the local brewer. When war breaks out, the lives and fortunes of the families who live in Lavender Road are changed out of all recognition. For Joyce, it means a struggle to keep food on the family table; for Jen it may mean the end of her dream to become an actress; and for Pam, there is the sickening seesaw of emotions as she fights attraction to her handsome lodger and a growing distance from a husband who is judged not fit to enlist.

Alice Lake has arrived in London from Liverpool to start her training as a District Nurse, but her journey has been far from easy. Her parents think that she should settle down and get married, but she has already had her heart broken once and isn’t about to make the same mistake again. Alice and her best friend, Edith, are based in the East End, but before they’ve even got their smart new uniforms on, war breaks out, and Hitler’s bombs are raining down on London.

Mary Vale, a grand and imposing Mother and Baby Home, sits on the remote Fylde coast in Lancashire. Its doors are open to unmarried women who come to hide their condition and find sanctuary. Women from all walks of life pass through Mary Vale, from beautiful waitress Emily, whose boyfriend has vanished without trace, to young Isla, cast out by her wealthy family after her first year at university goes horribly wrong. Awaiting them is Nurse Ada and Sister Anne who work tirelessly to aid the mothers and safely deliver the babies. 

In postwar Tarabeg, two women are waiting for ambitious Michael Malone to return home. Rosie is the local schoolteacher, and most people think she is promised to him. Just a few have guessed that he has secretly begun to woo Sarah, whose brutal fisherman father would kill her if he knew. Both Rosie and Sarah love Michael, both hope to become his wife and their lives will interweave in a tale of tangled secrets, old promises and new feuds. Michael Malone's choice will have fateful consequences for everyone - especially, in due course, for his young daughter....  

Sunderland, 1940, and the women go to the shipyards to do their bit for the war effort. Polly never dreamed she would be able to work in the shipyards like the men in her family but times are tough and her new job ends up giving her more than she ever expected when she meets enigmatic dock diver Tommy Watts. During the day, head welder Rosie teaches her fledgling flock of trainees their new trade, but at night she hides a secret life. And mother hen Gloria signs up to escape her brutal husband, but finds she cannot run....

Liverpool, 1946: the blackout blinds may be coming down, but one family is about to face devastating misfortune. Dora Evans is finally marrying the love of her life, and her dreams of opening a dressmaking business look as if they might come true. With twin daughters on the way, Dora has everything she's ever wanted. But then tragedy strikes: one of Dora's babies dies in infancy, and a catastrophic fire changes their lives forever. Can Dora save herself, her marriage and her daughter?

It wasn't a privileged childhood, but it was a happy one. Sybil and Lizzie Cream, brought up in a fisherman's cottage on the edge of the cold North Sea, were content to leave privilege where it belonged: with their friends the Wintertons. Christina Winterton was the same age as Sybil, and the two girls were inseparable, but it was Lizzie whom Ralph Winterton, three years older, found irresistible. Then war came to East Anglia, and so did Manchester-born Fenn Kitzmann, now of the American Army Air Force.

When sixteen-year-old Sally is evacuated to the English south coast, she is terrified by what lies ahead of her. All she knows are the sights and sounds of London's East End – but Sally swallows her tears as they leave the familiar landmarks behind, knowing that she has to be a Grown-Up Girl and play mother to her six-year-old brother Ernie. Playing mother is nothing new for Sally – their real mother Florrie, a good-time girl, hasn't even come to the station to wave them off and Ernie, crippled at an early age by polio, is used to depending on his older sister.

Lancashire, 1930: Leah Turner's father has been killed in an accident at the laundry, and since her mother died years ago it falls to her to become sole provider for her little sister. But women's wages are half those of men, and pawning the few belongings she has left will keep their vicious rent collector at bay for only a few weeks, so even if she finds a job, they'll lose their home. Out of the blue, Charlie Willcox, the local pawnbroker, offers her a deal.

August 1940: As the Luftwaffe swarm over Liverpool, Shane Quinn decides to move his family back to the safety of Ireland. But his only child, the beautiful Dana, would rather stay and serve her country than flee to a foreign land. Determined to make it on her own, she joins the WAAF with newfound pals Patty and Lucy. There’s plenty of excitement to be had on a RAF station, even a chance or two at love.