1950s Liverpool. Christmas is the most harrowing time of year for the nurses of St Angelus Hospital. A brilliant nurse secretly battling a fatal illness over Christmas... A starving baby boy abandoned in the freezing cold... A cruel, controlling mother, determined to block her daughter's nursing career at all costs... In the run up to Christmas, nurses Pammy and Beth are aiming to win the coveted national decorating competition for the St Angelus...

A disillusioned nurse suddenly learns how to care. An injured young sportsman wakes up find that he can see only in black and white. A desperate old widower takes too many pills and believes that two angels have arrived to usher him through purgatory. Two agoraphobic men called Dave share the symptoms of a brain tumour, and frequently waken their neighbour with their ongoing rows. Separate lives, running in parallel, destined to collide and then explode....

As a teenager in Chicago, May always dreamed of travelling the world. So when she falls in love with George Turner, she can?t wait to return to London as his wife. Two beautiful daughters follow, but George isn?t the husband he promised to be. Ten years on, May is wondering if she?s made a terrible mistake. The Great War has been declared in Europe, and all around, brave young men are being called up to serve. George, banned from conscription himself,...