Three very different girls sign up as student nurses in January 1936, while England is still mourning the death of George V. Dora is a tough East Ender, driven by ambition, but also desperate to escape her squalid, overcrowded home and her abusive stepfather. Helen is the quiet one, a mystery to her fellow nurses, avoiding fun, gossip and the limelight. In fact she is in the formidable shadow of her overbearing mother, who dominates every aspect of her life. Can a nursing career free Helen at last? The third of our heroines is naughty, rebellious Millie -- aka Lady Camilla -- an aristocrat on...

The lives and loves of young nurses at the Nightingale Hospital in the 1930s entwine with the stories of the ward sisters, each with her own heart-rending secrets.

It's the final year of training for three young nurses at the Nightingale Hospital. Helen is at a crossroads in her life as she battles with her domineering mother over both her love life and her future career. Dora can't stop loving Nick, who is married to her best friend, Ruby. But Ruby is hiding a dark secret with the potential to destroy Ruby's marriage. Millie is anxious about her fiance, sent to Spain to cover the Civil War, and things get worse when a fortune teller gives her a sinister warning. With war looming in Europe, the three women face their own challenges, at work and in...

1937 sees new challenges for the trainee nurses. Dora and her old enemy Lucy are paired up on the children's ward for the final three months of their training. The two nurses couldn't seem more different, but they may have more in common than they think, as each hides a secret heartache.Jess is the feisty eldest daughter of a notorious East End family and determined to prove herself as a ward maid. And new trainee nurse Effie can't wait to escape her small Irish village, and make her way as a nurse in London. But Effie's sister Katie soon begins to worry that Effie's behaviour is out of...

As the war takes its toll, the Nightingale nurses must do their bit for king and country...Dora is the devoted mother of twin babies but, determined to help the war effort, she goes back to work at the Nightingale Hospital. More used to nights out in the West End, Jennifer and Cissy volunteer in the hope of tending to handsome soldiers. They soon find out that nursing isn't quite what they were expecting. For shy and troubled Eve, the hospital provides an escape from the pressures of home, but the life of a nurse is never easy, especially at wartime. Can the nurses rally together while war...

Christmas 1941 and the nurses at the Nightingale are facing their toughest winter yet. With shortages everywhere, and every news bulletin announcing more defeats and losses, the British people are weary and demoralised and The Nightingale Hospital is suffering too. Millie is recently widowed and dealing with the demands of her family's estate.