Recently widowed, Katherine Chambers takes her young son to visit her husband's family when disaster strikes. The ship they are sailing on runs into a severe storm off Robin Hood's Bay on the Yorkshire Coast. Among the bodies on the beach, a survivor is found. Identified as Katherine from the engraving on the bracelet she wears on her wrist, she has no knowledge of who she is or where she is from.

Dr Bennett, the local doctor in Robin Hood's Bay, is called in but though he can treat Katherine's cuts and physical ailments, there is little he can do to heal the gaps in her memory. Determined to save Katherine from being placed in an institution, he asks his spinster sister to take care of her until her family can be traced. But jealous of her brother's interest in Katherine, Amelia Bennett takes a cruel pleasure in her predicament. Until Katherine can remember her past, her future is far from certain . . .