In 1917 the Great War rages on, and for the Hunters, their friends and their servants the war is where they live now. David has returned from the Front a shadow of his former self; his sister Diana, newly married, copes with pregnancy alone, her husband at the Front. Aunt Laura, eager for challenge, goes to France with an ambulance; while Beattie struggles to manage war work and household, while racked with her secret guilt and a new threat of exposure....

It is 1916 and the Hunters, their friends and their servants are settling down to the business of war. As conscription reaches into every household, Britain turns out men and shells in industrial numbers from army camps and munitions factories up and down the land. Bobby, the second Hunter son, gains his wings and joins his brother in France. Ethel, the under housemaid, embarks on a quest and Laura Hunter sets out on her biggest adventure yet. Diana,...