An old sea chest is delivered whilst a man and his daughter by a previous relationship are at his mother's funeral. His new wife finds diaries in a secret compartment and reads them. The story of her husband's mother is told in detail. She had suffered a bad marriage and had an affair with the gardener. She had two boys. One is studious and one flirtatious. Both are affected by the troubles between their parents. The younger one has a child whose mother runs off, so his own mother brings up the girl, who eventually goes back to her father on the death of her grandmother.
