The story opens in the average daily grind of Cathy who works/helps out in a goodwill centre. Her conversation with a fellow WVS who talks of her own husband and how she misses him. In turn, this does not elicit a similar response from Cathy of her own husband, and so hints that all is not right with their marriage. We later learn this to be true - she is trapped in a marriage which she no longer cares for, simply because she does not recognise the man she married before the war. He is violent and she is constantly aware that despite the difficulties of being a single mother during this period as well trying to stay alive during the Blitz and managing to feed themselves with rationing she is aware that there will be a point when he will return - until he does not. Is this a means for Cathy to start anew? To dare to hope for a better future for herself and her son?