On a cold and snowy night in 1910, Ursula Todd is born to an English banker and his wife but dies before she can draw her first breath. On that same cold and snowy night, Ursula Todd is born and embarks upon a life that will be unusual. As she grows, she also dies --- repeatedly, in a variety of ways --- while the young century marches on towards its second cataclysmic world war. Does Ursula's apparently infinite number of lives give her the power to save the world from its inevitable destiny?