Ireland 1943: although officially neutral no country can remain totally immune from world events. Some of its finest young are fighting and dying in far-flung places. But back home 13-year-old Brendan Lavelle has his own war to fight. His father, John Lavelle, is one of the town's two doctors, respected and revered as a holder of the Victoria Cross medal, won at Gallipoli in 1915. One late spring morning Brendan, while out visiting with him, uncovers a seemingly trivial secret about his father that sets him on a perilous quest for the truth - a search that takes him back to another war, one that could threaten his entire family's future. Is his father part of a terrible conspiracy that involves betrayal, murder and a hunt for stolen gold? Why are his father's former comrades-in-arms no longer what they seemed... and why are they so suddenly interested in what Brendan knows? With his infuriating but streetwise sidekick, Maura, they are all that stands between the destruction of everything Brendan holds dear... and a truth that may prove more costly than he is prepared to pay. In the rumour-soaked atmosphere of Ireland's 'Emergency' - with its spies from the skies, floating German mines and the hated 'glimmer man' - five crucial days is compellingly evoked here in a tale of one boy who must grow up fast - or die