1939. When war sends five displaced children to her door Dodie Fitznorton knows life will never be the same. Her once orderly home is now strewn with odd socks and abandoned toast crusts and there's a flea-infested ginger kitten hidden away upstairs. But the baggage these little ones bring is far more than just their tattered suitcases. Eight-year-old Olive trembles when spoken to and won't say how she got a bruised lip and her brother Peter seems angry at the entire world. Then Dodie meets the children's grey-eyed American teacher Patrick Winter who makes her feel she's not alone in this fight. As darkness falls over Europe Dodie's fragile sanctuary begins to feel like a fortress under siege. With whispers of spies in the village and the children's precious futures at stake Dodie must decide who to trust before everything she's built crumbles to ashes around her. . .
