Franny Healey grew up in post-war rural Ireland. Addicted to the glamorous films of the day, she determined to do whatever it took to one day be a film star herself; immortal, adored. When she fell pregnant at seventeen, Franny faced an awful choice: leave behind the family she loved, or suffer the life she never wanted. Seven years later, Franny faces another devastating choice. Now living in the East End, she has a good friend in Annie, and a beautiful little daughter, Cara. When, one night, she is spotted by a Hollywood producer, and finally given the chance to go to Hollywood and become a star, Franny has to choose between her daughter and her dream. She chooses Hollywood. It's a choice that brings Franny all the things she ever wanted - stardom, excitement, love. But just three years after her marriage to multi-millionaire Maximilian Stanhope, the film actress Frances Fitzgerald, nee Franny Healey, is reported to have died in mysterious circumstances. Abandoned by her mother, packed off to live with her grandmother, Cara endures a tough childhood. Kept secret from the Irish authorities, she is sent, on her granny's death, to a Church-run orphanage - a harsh institution, which not all the children are lucky enough to survive. Cara does survive, and returns to the East End. From there she carves a career as a hard-hitting investigative journalist, exposing corruption and injustice. But there's one story even Cara is afraid to touch: the mystery of what really happened to her mother. It's a story that will take Cara half-way across the world, to LA - to retrace her mother's footsteps, in the hope of finding answers to the questions that have haunted her all her life.