It is London, a blitzed city. Up till now Mary Fiss has resisted being sent to the country but when the Mulryne's 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 herself as a private detective, and it is not long before she is looking into the affairs at Wolfdale. Why is the front bedroom always locked? Who is the smooth stranger Oliver Tresco who glides about the Hall? And where is the daughter, Cicely, who no one has seen? The more she discovers,the darker the picture appears. Is it a figment of Mary's over-active imagination, or could they be in danger at Wolfdale?