James Butland is about to start at Oxford when he goes into the military at only 18 years old. He is injured at Calais and works his way to Agnes who though she is not a doctor she has many skills of medicine to help those around her. James goes on to serve where he is called. When he gets out he becomes a doctor. He never stops thinking about Agnes. He has an opportunity to take a tour back where he was during the war, trying to recover from having lost his son a year ago in an accident. Can he get on with his life, does he need to find Agnes?

This book had an interesting story-line but I found that there was too much military history and medical facts, not enough fleshing out of the characters. The debacle of Calais is, as the author intimates, swept under the carpet, with all focus being on the retreat from Dunkirk and the heroism of the "little ships". This book made me wonder what other disasters were hidden from the public when history was written down.

Absolutely loved this book up to the rather abrupt end which, with hindsight, was genius as the storyline was reaching it's climax.