The little Londoner Rita visits her grandmother, Maria Petraki, in Crete every summer. As she looks at old family photographs, she asks her grandmother about her youth. This is Maria's opportunity to delve into her memories and tell her story.

Maria's life changed the day her mother and her best friend and neighbor, Dimitris, fell ill with leprosy and had to be isolated to heal from this dreadful disease on the island of Spinalonga. Through her mother’s and Dimitris’s letters and drawings, Maria learns everything about life on the island. However, over the years, the letters become rare as her mother’s health deteriorates. Eventually, her mother loses the battle with the disease.

Few years later, Maria, sick herself, is sent to the island where she meets Dimitris again. Wanting to help, she joins the nurses and supports a doctor who has come to test a new treatment.