After one day together, July 15th, 1988, their college graduation, Emma Morley and Dexter Mayhew begin a friendship that lasts a lifetime. She's a working-class girl who dreams of making the world a better place. He's a wealthy charmer who thinks the world is his playground. Somewhere over the next two decades, these two very different people realize that the love they've been hoping for has been there for them all along.

In the early 1960's, 16-year-old Jenny Mellor lives with her parents in a London suburb. She is smart, pretty, and working toward her goal of being accepted into Oxford. Her life will take a big turn when she meets David, a man twice her age. Now she must decide if she will pursue an education at Oxford, or if she will choose to learn all that a charismatic, older man can teach her.