| Summary Note |
As German bombs fall over London in 1940, working-class parents Millie and Reginald Thompson make an impossible choice. They decide to send their 11-year-old daughter, Beatrix, to America, where they hope she’ll stay safe. Scared and angry, Bea arrives in Boston to meet the Gregorys. Mr and Mrs G, and their sons William and Gerald, fold Beatrix seamlessly into their world. She grows close to both boys, one older and one younger, and fills in the gap between them. Before long, before she even realises it, life with the Gregorys feels more natural than her life back in England. As the girl she had been begins to fade away, abruptly, she is called home to London when the war ends. As she returns to post-war London, the memory of her American family stays with her, always pulling on her heart as she tries to move on and pursue a life of her own. |
