Liverpool, 1950. They say you can choose your friends, but you can't choose your family. Yet when Violet Duffy is asked to give a home to the orphaned children of a distant relative, it is precisely the choice she must face.

Abby and Will have had young lives full of tragedy. Life with Violet offers love and safety. But as they grow up, their past won't let them be. Will they choose Violet, or the lure of bigger cities and new horizons?

Private passions, tough choices, lost loves and second chances pull them in different directions, but wherever life takes them, Violet's door is always open - after all, it's love that makes a house a home.