In the Cheshire village of Great Paxford in August 1939 there is anticipation of another war and local doctor Will Campbell volunteers for service but is rejected, to the relief of his wife Erica - until it is revealed that he has cancer. Butcher Bryn Brindsley's wife Miriam, recalling her husband's ordeal in the Great War, is fearful when teen-aged son David announces that he wants to join the navy. Joyce Cameron, imperious chair of the Women's Institute, proposes the group disband until the end of the war but is opposed by feisty Frances Barden, forcing Joyce's ...