Running an island plane service with her grandfather on the remote islands of northern Scotland, Morag McGinty, on the verge of making a huge life change, is marooned on an off-grid island with a visiting ornithologist who has just the right perspective to help her pilot her course.

"At the height of the Second World War in England, Nina Woodrow joins the Royal Air Force and rebels against her careful upbringing by embarking on an illicit affair with an officer. She risks losing everything for Guy Nicholson: her comfortable home, her childhood friends, and, especially, the love of her father, an enigmatic widower. Meanwhile, in the sleepy village where Nina grew up, where the upheavals of war seem far away and divorce remains...