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This is Muriel’s story and her beginnings in a village on the north west coast of Ireland. The story is told of life in a large family in the early days of the 20th Century; Muriel as a child and teenager during the Irish struggle for independence and the Irish Civil War.  As a young woman casting around for something to do, Muriel travels to Australia and on to India, taking life in whatever direction chance will take her.  There she meets Ronnie and forms a deep relationship, which even over two years is never steady. And so with war looming in Europe she decides to head back home hoping a break  will clear her mind. Forever restless, she travels on to America across an ocean now patrolled by German u-boats. Soon letters begging her to marry arrive, leaving her in a state of indecision. After four years a letter now from England, where Ronnie is back for medical treatment, forces the decision to make another convoy crossing. As in India, the relationship is just as  rocky as ever, but they marry on an impulse before Ronnie returns to India for war service – with Muriel spending the remaining years of the war in London while the city is under German air attack. At war’s end, she heads back to India to be with her husband. There the two decide to settle in South Africa where both had fallen in love with Cape Town when on voyages to and from the UK.  The story is picked up by her son where he spends his early days on the family farm in Port Elizabeth. The stories of the next generation are told – adventures, farm animals and life for a kid in 1950s South Africa.  However, the new marriage soon slips into dysfunction and from there to a traumatic breakdown that drags on for years. After a final separation and divorce Muriel’s indomitable spirit wins through in the end with a stability and peace eventually established.