Robin Cavendish is a globe-trotting adventurer, who sets his sights on the lovely Diana Blacker. "Not a chance. She's a total heartbreaker," chuckles one of Robin's upper-class pals. Unperturbed, Robin wins the fair maiden's heart with charm and they head to 1953 Kenya, where he operates as a tea trader. Marriage beckons and as the couple prepares to welcome a child into the world, Robin contracts polio. Paralysed from the neck down and reliant on a respirator to breathe, Robin tearfully prepares for death.