It's 1942 and the Second World War is raging on. Maggie Carpenter led a seemingly quiet life as a teacher in Manchester, but as the fighting intensifies she quits her peaceful existence to do her bit for the war effort. As part of an army of girls working on the canals to deliver essential supplies around the country, Maggie's world is far from comfortable. She has to share a tiny cabin with two strangers, where there's no running water and a questionable lavatory set-up.
As the girls get used to their new back-breaking work, they grow gradually closer, but what they don't realise is that they all have secrets in their pasts. Maggie had to flee Manchester following an illicit affair while seemingly well-to-do Elizabeth is on the run from money woes. Soon they're thrown into an unlikely alliance when they discover a deserter - a Dunkirk veteran - and it seems the only person who can help them is a young Army padre who has his own demons to fight. Against her better judgement Maggie finds herself drawn to this mysterious padre, but at what cost? As a woman scarred by romance and the pitfalls of her past, can she really let him in and learn to trust again?
