London, then. It was a city in love with beginnings.
-- Narrator (untitled prologue)

Importance: When Mary learns that England is at war with Nazi Germany, she immediately joins the military. To do so, she travels to the War Office in London. The city is alive with talk of war. It is noted as being a city of beginnings. Not only is this a new phase in Mary’s life in terms of the war and her work, but it will be a new career in her life in terms of love that is to come.

Meeting Mary is the first thing to make me feel that this war might not be completely awful.
-- Tom (October, 1939)

Importance: Tom reveals he has been dating Mary and that she is the first thing that has happened to him because of the war that makes him feel as if not everything will be bad. He explains to Alistair that he and...