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Miriam is infatuated with John, a new acquaintance. Her husband, Mick, seems uninteresting in comparison. But when John's boat breaks down in a storm as they are returning from a picnic, Miriam realises that it is Mick who has always been her protector.
Clarissa Tibey has worked on the same dangerous machine in a shoe factory for twenty years, using the money she earns to support her adopted son, the child of a friend who died when the child was born. When the boy suffers a sporting accident she requests the surgery that will save his life, but is faced with a fee she has no hope of paying. A work accident provides the means to pay the doctor's account.