Lily is only four when she realises her family is headed for disaster. While she and her siblings are dragged around the world during the 1960s and early '70s by their military father Jack, he propels their mother, gentle, green-fingered Lauren Rose, to the edge of insanity through mental and physical abuse. A cat-and-mouse game of escape and entrapment ensues, testing Lily's resilience, resourcefulness and family loyalty to the limit.

Jack, an emotionally scarred war veteran, enlists the help of his equally formidable mother Emma to turn his children against the fragile Lauren Rose. Their mission is to make the children conform to a strict, unforgiving code of behaviour and crush their spirited natures. Rebellion is met with increasingly harsh penalties.

Jack brings new women into the children's lives, but Lily vows that, no matter what, she will find her real mother, compelled by an indestructible bond. Love comes in the form of high-school sweetheart Diego, who helps her in her quest to break free from Jack and Emma's control. The final hurdle in her way is a court case taken out by her own father and grandmother to have her branded a juvenile delinquent. The judge sees in Lily a talented young woman desperate for a new future and, with the support of kindly foster parents, she dreams of college and becoming a writer. She will first have to fight, stand up for herself, and then will it be time for the reunion for which she has so longed for decades?