1970. Faith, an English woman living in New York, is pregnant with her first child, but the father is fighting in Vietnam. A freak storm causes an accident on the battlefield and he disappears without trace. Faith returns to England to have her baby, and tries to begin life again. Some years later, her son, Daniel, has grown up and is working in a book shop in Derby. He leads an unremarkable life with a constant sense of there being something missing, that he is destined for greater things in life. He is quiet, shy and somewhat in love with his flighty co-worker, Fiona. He knows there is more to life than this. One day a mysterious stranger arrives in town claiming to be his long-lost father, Jacob. This unexpected reunion, and the development of a relationship between the two of them, sets Dan on a path he had never expected. Life will never be the same again.