When World War II is declared, rich banker Henry Granville moves his family away from London. Even so, life for them remains turbulent. Rosie, his eldest daughter, already lives nearby with her two children, but her marriage is unhappy and when her husband joins up she takes a lover, something she comes to bitterly regret. Meanwhile, her sister Juliet, divorced from the Duke of Kincardine, faces the greatest tragedy a woman can experience. Desperate to forget her past, she becomes a Red Cross nurse, attached to an ambulance unit. Night after night she has to deal with the casualties of the blitz, as a third of London is destroyed and thousands are killed. Louise, now fifteen, becomes fatefully involved with Jake, an East End evacuee, while Amanda and little Charlotte's contribution to food rationing is to keep hens, ducks and rabbits. The challenges they face have a profound affect on the family, and the changes war has brought about are far worse than they could have feared.