In this second book of Elizabeth Jane Howard's iconic work "The Cazalet Chronicle," we follow the lives of the heroes for 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 upper class, who are called upon to mature in an era when their homeland experiences the depth of Nazi betrayal and faces the danger 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 in a lively and captivating way her heroes as they reluctantly leave their familiar and secure world, with their rigid behaviors, well-ordered fortunes, and the refuge of the idyllic family country house in Sussex. With their hopes always alive, however, the Cazalets refuse to abandon the power of the soul and the sense of family, which are also what help them survive in the midst of war.