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 Wolfdal