There is nothing so dead as a dead love, it is said, but Joanne Hampton was to doubt the truth of those words when Robin Crowther, after an absence of three years, came back as a consultant, she found his continual presence very disturbing to her hard-won peace of mind. They had fallen in love when she was a student nurse and he a struggling houseman, but the romance had fallen apart when he accused her of putting her career before him. Now Joanne had achieved her ambition to become Sister of Nightingale Ward, but it seemed curiously unsatisfying now that Robin was back again. But what was the use of trying to resurrect the past, when by this time Robin was back again. But what was the use of trying to resurrect the past, when by this time Robin was so clearly disinterested in another woman anyway?