In the 1930s, Chiara emigrates from Italy to forge a new and better life in Wales. She works in an Italian café in a close-knit mining town in the Valleys, encountering religious bigotry, xenophobia, and hardship as she and her Italian boss battle to make a success of their new life. But at the heart of their endeavour is a love triangle which threatens to destroy everything they have.

Meanwhile present-day Welsh-Italian Frankie struggles to find the money and hope to hold her family together in the same Valleys community. With her husband letting her down at every turn, she faces tough decisions about exactly how far she’s prepared to go to keep the wolf from the door, and whether what she has is actually worth fighting for.

Though they’re living in very diff erent time periods and situations, the two women’s lives reveal unexpected connections and commonalities, not least of which is their strength and determination to face down whatever life throws at them and carve out something better for themselves and those they love.