Jess Raeburn lives with her widowed mother and beautiful sister, Marguerite, in a small flat in Leith, a suburb of Edinburgh. Though reasonably content in her job as a cashier in a department store, Jess dreams of a more exciting life. When she is hired to work in the box office at the Princes Street cinema, she is thrilled. For Jess is star-struck, and to be so close to the films and stars she loves seems like a dream come true, with handsome projectionist, Ben Daniel, wonderfully part of the dream. But it is Ben's assistant, Rusty MacVail, whom she marries and, as the world moves towards a second World War, Jess will need all her courage to face what lies ahead. Especially when, as even her beloved cinema is threatened, Ben comes back into her life and new and disturbing choices beckon ...