 An elderly English spinster lady lives alone, is heartily disliked, and will not accept aid from anyone. She has lived a life of total denial, but preserves her past in the diaries she keeps on her shelf, one for each year. We learn that her memories of one particular year continue to haunt her. She picks the journal up from time to time, revisiting the early war years, when she met and came to know the one love of her life, an RAF pilot during the Battle of Britain, and how it ended in pregnancy and ultimately grief. At the end, she learns to adjust to the idea that managed care can indeed bring new ways to deal with life s disappointments.