Unusually gritty and moving WWII saga set in a Lancashire POW camp and its hospital. Mary is a nurse at a Lancashire prison camp for the housing and treatment of German POWs. Life at work is difficult but fulfilling; life at home a constant round of arguments – between her mother, two brothers and father, often prompted by her fly-by-night sister, Ellen, the apple of her irascible father’s eye. Then Frank appears – a guard at the camp, he’s been watching Mary for weeks – and hangs around until she agrees to walk out with him. But Frank is a difficult man to love and it’s not long before Mary gives him his marching orders. Matters come to a head when Frank puts two and two together and realises that Mary is about to embark on an affair with one of the camp’s German doctors. Frank won’t take no for an answer and the gossips are eager for their next victim (having already seen off Mary’s Conchie elder brother and pregnant sister). Now, not only Mary’s happiness but her life is threatened by this most dangerous of secrets…
