A bitterly cold, sleety wind was blowing. Christmas was now two days in the past, as a young teenage girl pushed her second-hand bicycle from her family's country cottage where she lived with her mother and elder sister. She was setting off for the four-mile journey to the bookshop where she'd worked for the past year. The love of her work made her oblivious to the bitter wind and blinding sleet. The money earned was a welcome asset to the family, and filled her with a warm, proud feeling knowing she was at last contributing to the household expenses, taking a little extra strain from her mother's shoulders. At the same time another young teenager was sitting impatiently in her father's new car as he loaded her luggage into the boot and strapped her skis on the roof rack before driving from their detached home in London's affluent green belt to the airport where she would meet with friends for their skiing trip to the resort of Val-d'Isere in the French Alps, a Christmas present from her wealthy parents. The lives of these two opposites would, in future years, have untold effects far and wide, that would shake both families to the roots in events of sheer happiness and devastating disaster.