It is London, a blitzed city. Up till now Mary Fiss has resisted being sent to the country but when the Mulrynes house opposite is bombed, slaughtering little Orla,Mary relents. 2 days later in the company of her sister Daisy, and 500 strangers she departs Paddington station bound for Devon. They pitch up in a small country town along with an abandoned boy Billy Grimes, they wait to find their new Mum and Dad. Some of the kids are taken to the guesthouses, some to the Vicarage, or Smithy, but Billy and the Fissleborough sisters are driven into the hills to Wolfdale. Mary has always fancied...