It's 1945 and the war is finally over. At last the inhabitants of Plymouth and Porstmouth are free of the threat of invasion and the fear of the dreaded telegram. Now they can start rebuilding not only their homes and cities, but their own disrupted lives.

Yet nothing is so simple: Lucy has survived the bombing and is running a guest house and bringing up her family, but when her husband arrives home from a Japanese POW camp, she barely recognizes the happy-go-lucky sailor who went to war in 1939. And what will become of David, who stood by Lucy throughout the war, and now faces a life of loneliness?

Lillian Harry's wonderful characters captivate from the very first page, taking the reader back to a time when the world was just awakening from the nightmare of war - a time of hardship, but also of courage and of laughter.