When a young woman is raised traditionally but wants more from life than marriage and a brood of children, what more can she do but run away from home and discover what city life is like in the 1930s. For Margaret McKenzie it's exciting, and leads her into the arms of Nate, and the swinging jazz scene of downtown Auckland in wartime New Zealand. Soon she learns the hard way about life as a single mother, and has to go to extraordinary lengths to protect her children from being taken away from her. But what happens when her former spoilt rich young lover returns with his wife not far behind him. His idyllic life is not so sweet, and soon Margaret must fight once again for her children. And why is the mysterious Thomas Morris following her from the day she arrives in Auckland as a young teen, only to turn up unexpectedly time and again to turn her life upside down. Life for a determined single woman in the mid 20th century can be anything but straightforward it seems.