"What in the world am I doing here, in a southwest-bound train on my way to Plymouth and a job about which I know nothing and a uniform I shall certainly hate?"

It is 1940. Catherine Saxon is on her way to join the Women's Royal Naval Service at its Quarters in Devonport. She isn't quite sure why she joined up in the first place. A journalist on a local paper, her brief had been to cover gossip and fashion, so she was hardly in the front line! But join up she did, and her impulsive decision is to have undreamt-of consequences...

Sent first for basic training as a teleprinter operator, Catherine is surprised to find she enjoys the camaraderie of her fellow WRENs and quickly grows to love the beautiful Devon countryside. A posting to Liverpool comes as something of a shock, but she soon acclimatises to the war-torn city, and it is here, one fine day in early spring, that she meets the man who is to have such a profound effect on her life.

Tom Lyddon is a veteran of the Spanish Civil War and his political beliefs strike an immediate chord with Catherine. In wartime, the usual stages of courtship are dispensed with, and she readily accepts Tom's invitation to spend a few days with him in the blissful solitude of the North Wales countryside. Their idyll ends when Tom is recalled to active service abroad, and then all Catherine can do is wait - and hope - for her lover's safe return...