Ireland, 1950s. When beautiful young Grace is married off to a much older judge, she is thrust into a lonely, neglected life. Then she meets and falls in love with Vikram, an Indian doctor who's charming, thoughtful, and kind--everything her husband is not. But their brief idyll is cut short when she falls pregnant. As soon as the child is born, Grace is sent to an asylum. And Vikram, told that Grace died in childbirth, returns to India heartbroken.

Thirty years later, the late judge's estranged daughter Emma returns home to pack up his estate, where she finds Grace's diaries. Emma begins to piece together the life of the mother she never knew. Meanwhile, Vikram is planning a long-awaited return to Ireland with his much-loved niece Rosa--who has grown up hearing all about her uncle's long-lost love--to stand, at last, at the grave of the woman he adores.

As a deception spanning both decades and continents finally begins to unravel, long-buried secrets come to the surface. Along with them, a desperate question is raised: can true love last a lifetime?