September 1939, and war is declared. For Bob and Annie Kelty, life will never be the same again, not least because they are forced to foster twelve-year-old Ellen Laing, an evacuee from Finnieston in Glasgow. Amid growing tensions between the Glasgow evacuees and the residents of the sleepy village of Crieff, the feisty and quick-tempered Ellen struggles to settle. Ellen's schoolteacher, Miss Carrington, who seems to take an immediate dislike to her, exacerbates her problems. There is something sinister about Lorna Carrington. As war rages in Europe, there are problems closer to home. A series of arson attacks rock the village. Locals blame the evacuees, but as he investigates, Bob Kelty begins to suspect a different, more surprising, source.