In early 1944 thousands of American soldiers continue to engage in military manoeuvres with landing craft and tanks on the North Devon sandy beaches. When will they move on and where will they go?
Against this wartime backdrop, Emily, a newly qualified teacher comes to convalesce at the farm near West Buckland owned by her aunt and uncle, after witnessing the bombing of Sandhurst Road School in Lewisham and suffering a nervous breakdown. Although there is little risk of bombing in North Devon, farmers are struggling to produce the food demanded to feed the nation, and Land Army girls are called upon to make up the work force.
Emily makes new friends and joins the local orchestra, playing her violin alongside a beautiful and mysterious woman who practises medicine and lives in a remote cottage on the coast. Emily realises that she is not alone in feeling loss and meets others who have to learn to move on and pick up the pieces of their lives.
