August 1914, Clifton Park. Mrs Eloise Brannan refuses to believe there will be a war. For she knows what troubles and hardship it will bring upon her now grown-up children: headstrong Roderick and sweet Elizabeth, and their ever-patient cousin Dorothea. But war does indeed come, and Roderick is determined to fight. He secures a commission in France, leaving behind his pregnant wife, whose unhappiness at Clifton Park is no secret . . . Elizabeth remains at home with her mother, their once bustling house now almost empty. Even Dorothea has left for London to serve King and Country as a frontline nurse. A little over a year later. Looking through the windows at the beautiful September gardens, Eloise spots the Post Master's boy coming up the path. He's holding a telegram. What Eloise cannot know is that the contents of this message will irrevocably change her family's life for ever. But whatever happens, she knows the Brannans must stick together to survive.