Aurora Greenway is the kind of woman who makes the world turn around her - including her string of devoted suitors. Widowed, Aurora has an infant daughter, Emma, of whom she is at first overprotective. As Emma grows up, the relationship between mother and daughter is full of tension and disagreement - not least over Emma's choice of husband, who Aurora disapproves of. Then, with the devastating discovery that Emma has cancer, Aurora slowly learns to adapt and compromise.