In 1944 eight-year-old Kitty is placed as an evacuee in a Gloucestershire village with a cold, unhappy couple Joyce and Jack Shepherd, who seem to find her Cockney chirpiness repugnant. Neither of them approve of Kitty's friendship with Tommy Glover - an older boy from the boys' home - and even seem to nurse a mysterious hatred of him.
Kitty's relentless curiosity slowly transforms the strangely troubled marriage of Joyce and Jack, and when she exposes a terrible secret, the lives of nearly everybody in the village are changed forever.
Pre-loved – please refer to definitions if required.