Joanna Burton was born in South Africa but sent by her missionary father
to be raised in Yorkshire. There she dreams of the far-off lands she
will visit and adventures to come. At eighteen, tall and flaxen-haired,
she meets Teddy Leigh, a young man on his way to the trenches of the
First World War. Joanna has been in love before - with Sir Walter
Raleigh, with the Scarlet Pimpernel, with Coriolanus - but this is
different. Teddy tells her he's been given the world to wear as a golden
ball. Joanna believes him and marries him, but the fabled shores recede
into the distance when, after the war, Teddy returns in ill health. The
magic land turns out to be the harsh reality of motherhood and life on a
Yorkshire farm. Yet still she dares to dream.