It’s 1915 and the country is at war when the red carpet is rolled out at the royal station at the small Norfolk station of Wolferton.

Royal visits may be fewer these days, but the highly esteemed station master Harry Saward is not one to let standards slip when the royal family and their aristocratic guests arrive on his platform en route to Sandringham House.

With their men away at war, fighting with the Sandringham Company on the frontlines of Gallipoli, the women of Wolferton bond over their heartaches, loss and uncertainty as many soldiers are still unaccounted for, including Sandringham’s estate manager, Captain Frank Beck.

Harry and his family, his wife Sarah and daughters Jessie, Beatrice and Ada, face additional turmoil when Maria, an impoverished relative, turns up on their doorstep out of the blue, bringing with her secrets that shakes their lives in this tight knit community.

Then it becomes clear that in an age of snobbery and false pretence, not everyone’s life is at it seems.

It is 1917 and Maria has adapted well to her new life on the royal Sandringham estate where she works as a maid in the Big House for Queen Alexandra and is in awe of the many treasures around her. It is two years since she turned up at the royal station master’s house to escape her secret past, destitute and with nowhere else to turn. Having proven herself to Harry Saward and his daughters, she is now welcomed by them as one of the family. But when Nellie, a mysterious relative arrives in Wolferton, on the run from the law, Maria’s new-found happiness could be under threat.

Meanwhile, the impact of World War I is felt deeply in the community as the fate of missing men from the Sandringham Company, who fought in Gallipoli, is still unknown. Harry’s daughters pull together to support each other with women on the royal estate as they face their sorrows and challenges. Ada’s husband, Alfie, is away fighting on the front line while Beatrice is now a VAD nurse at a cottage hospital. Jessie has become a land army girl, proudly doing a man’s job, while pining for her sweetheart Jack, a royal messenger.

In a community torn apart by loss and tragedy, how will the station master’s family survive and find the happiness they’re all searching for?

The war is over, but the effects of it are ever-present in the village of Wolferton. At just two miles from Sandringham House, the private residence of British monarchs, the people of Wolferton have a special connection to the royals – particularly the family of the royal station master, Harry Saward.

But their privileged position and access to the royal family do not lessen the devastating impact of war on the Saward girls. Maria’s fiancé, Eddie, is suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, Ada’s husband, Alfie, has lost his job, and his purpose in life, Jessie is praying for the safe return of her beau, Jack, and Beatrice is hard at work as a nurse in the war hospital and is faced with a shocking revelation from her sweetheart.

With many men from the Sandringham Company still missing in Gallipoli, the village is also suffering. When Kitty Willow, the wife of one of the missing men, and her six young children lose their home on the royal estate, the Saward family rally around to help. As they are forced into the workhouse and Kitty is separated from her children, life looks bleak. But when a kind benefactor takes a shine to Kitty her fortunes may have turned around. Could this be the new start in life that she and her children so desperately need?