Ruby Lennox is a middle-class girl living with her family in York, United Kingdom. The story is told from the time that Ruby is born and through many years of her life, up until about 1992 (she was born in 1951).
Ruby has always been a mature child, and knew from an early age that her mother did not love her. Her birth was unplanned, and her mother never really paid any attention to her. A tragedy occurs when Ruby's sister, Gillian, is fatally wounded by a bus crash. Ruby has deep emotions for this incident, but is not able to seek comfort in her mother - instead, she must look to her older sister Patricia for support.
But, Patricia soon leaves the house after she herself has an unplanned pregnancy. Not wanting to care for the child, she puts it up for adoption and leaves Ruby with her mother and father. Ruby's father is also not someone that you can turn to - in fact, he was caught cheating with another woman. Soon after this incident, he dies unexpectedly of a heart attack.
Now, Ruby and her mother are left alone. Ruby literally has nowhere to go, because she is not even old enough to drive. Despite being the only two people in the house, she and her mother don't grow much closer.
Once Ruby's mother meets another man, Ruby discovers a long lost secret from her past. The new boyfriend tells her that Ruby was responsible for her twin sister's death. Not even knowing that she had a twin sister, she consults the local doctor. She discovers that she did indeed have a twin sister named Pearl, but she drowned at a very young age. Gillian, it seems, had told each of the twins to walk on ice, but Pearl fell in the freezing water. Gillian came up with the excuse that Ruby had pushed her sister in, leading to the bad publicity.
After finding this out, Ruby knows that she needs to get out of the house as soon as she can. Once she graduates, she leaves home, but doesn't really have anywhere to go. She contacts Patricia, who had not talked to her for a while, and they restrengthen their sisterhood. Both of them agree that they will never let any children they might have go through what Ruby had to go through as a child.
