September, 1939: At the breakout of the Second World War, ten-year-old Shirley is sent away on a train. She doesn’t know where she’s going, or what’s going to happen to her when she gets there. All she has been told is that she’s going on ‘a little holiday’.

She soon finds herself lodged deep in the countryside, with two boys from the East End of London, Kevin and Archie. But here, living in the strange, half-empty Red House with the mysterious and reclusive Mrs Waverley, the children’s lives will be changed for ever.