In this second book of the iconic work by Elizabeth Jane Howard, The Cazalet Chronicles, we follow the lives of its characters over two tumultuous years, from September 1939 to Pearl Harbor and the involvement of the United States in World War II.

The protagonists are the young cousins Louise, Polly, and Clary Cazalet, three girls from the deeply wounded British middle class, who are called to come of age in a time when their homeland is experiencing the depths of Nazi treachery and facing the threat of an impending catastrophic national defeat.

In this truly wonderful novel, Howard once again keeps the reader's interest alive. She vividly describes the profound upheavals of public and family life in Britain during the 1930s and 1940s.

She captures her heroes in a vivid and captivating way as they reluctantly abandon their familiar and safe world, with its rigid behaviors, tidy estates, and the sheltered haven of the idyllic family holiday home in Sussex. With their hopes always alive, however, the Cazalets refuse to give up the strength of spirit and sense of family, which are ultimately what help them survive the turmoil of war.