Summary

Chapter 1 is set in August 1939 in London, England. Grace Bennett and her best friend, Vivienne “Viv,” had dreamed of moving to London, but not under their circumstances. Grace had been devastated by her mother’s death. The devastation was worse when her uncle, who owned the house where Grace had grown up, forced Grace to leave. Grace felt as if she were a failure when she wrote to Mrs. Weatherford, her mother’s best friend in London, begging for a place to live.

Grace and Viv arrived at Farringdon Station with their luggage and gas masks in tow. Although England had not officially joined the war against the Nazis, there were already advertisements posted asking men to join the military. On the street, sandbags protected buildings designated as air-raid shelters. Moving from their small town of Drayton to London put them in greater...