"No-one wanted to know, not clergy, politicians, families. It was the times-there was no crime worse than having an illegitimate child."In Ireland in 1951 June Goulding, newly qualified as a midwife, went to work in a home for unmarried mothers. There, she was shocked by the horrific treatment the women received. After the birth, the women were forced to work in the convent while they looked after their babies for the first three years, and then to hand over the toddlers to adoptive parents-a heartbreaking experience.At the same time, June's own courtship-of dressmaking, dinner dances, and afternoon drives-is played out against the hidden Ireland of the 1950s.