Set in 1915, Julia gets a job in a exclusive West End dress shop run by socialite Marian Lestrange. When her boyfriend dies on the Somme, followed by her father she enters a loveless marriage to a divorced older man.
It's 1921, Harold Starling has returned from the war and Julia makes it clear that their marriage is a convenience only. Julia she meets Leonard, a former school friend, who despite being her cousin's boyfriend is besotted with her.
Christmas 1921; Julia wants leave Harold for Leonard but he flatly refuses to let her have a divorce. When she discovers she is pregnant Julia is forced to have a back street abortion. Leonard cracks and beats Harold to a pulp.
Julia's claims that an unknown man attacked her husband but when Leonard Carr is caught the letters she wrote to him put her in the dock. Although her references to poisoning Herbert can't be proved the judge bias sees her hanged.