Marion is a spinster who lives at the isolated house called The Franchise with her mother. Betty Kane accuses the two women of kidnapping and beating her, and the town shuns them as the case attracts hostile press attention. Robert Blair works to establish their innocence and proposes to Marion, but she declines before departing for Canada with her mother.
Elizabeth is the highly efficient secretary who effectively runs David Walsh's struggling diamond firm. After resigning over David's refusal to follow her financial rescue plan, she is caught up in a robbery and held by the gang. Her expertise and practical plans influence the thieves, and her message enables David to rescue her and the stolen jewels. They later marry.
Anne Fielding is delayed on the London Underground while traveling to meet her friend Victor James Colebrooke. After meeting Jack Williams, who is delayed as well, she immediately takes a liking to him. When they leave the Underground, Jack helps Anne locate Victor, linking her to both central men in the story.
Rachel Hammond is Dr. Hammond's daughter and Jonathan's assistant in the medical practice. Jonathan gradually transfers his affections from Edie to Rachel, and Rachel remains connected to him through the conflicts surrounding his work. By the 1939 framing sequence, she is Jonathan's wife and his established life partner.
One of the three sisters, Charlotte is cowed and worn down by emotional abuse from her manipulative, brutal husband, Geoffrey. He humiliates her in front of their three children, and she descends into alcoholism to blur her despair. Lucy and Vera try to help, but Charlotte's final attempt to flee ends in tragedy.
Dulcie Gray has 23 screen credits in a career dating back to 1944. Signature works include There Was a Young Lady, The Franchise Affair, The Glass Mountain. Explore the interactive character relationship maps on each title page to trace how their roles connect across franchises.
