When Frank Davies marries a younger woman, Susan, his ten-year-old daughter Louise feels pushed out - and even more so when baby Karen arrives. Neither her father's outrageous spoiling of her, nor the drama school to which she is sent to pursue her dream, is enough to distract Louise from the void left by her absent mother. Now, years later, with her father gone, Louise is obsessed with finding her mother, while distancing herself from her family and spitefully making trouble for Karen whenever the opportunity arises. Karen has her own family problems to deal with, while Susan longs to see her girls reconciled and to pick up the threads of her own life again. Eventually each woman, in her own way, is shown the path to happiness. But will they take it?