September 1939, and war is declared. For Bob and Annie Kelty, life will never be the same again, not least because they are forced to foster twelve-year-old Ellen Laing, an evacuee from Finnieston in Glasgow.

Amid growing tensions between the Glasgow evacuees and the residents of the sleepy town of Crieff, the feisty and quick-tempered Ellen struggles to settle. Her schoolteacher, Miss Carrington, who seems to take an immediate dislike to her, exacerbates her problems.

There is something sinister about Lorna Carrington.

As war rages in Europe, there are problems closer to home. A series of arsons rocks the town. Locals blame the evacuees but, as he investigates, Bob Kelty comes to suspect a different, more surprising, source.

One that threatens to send everything Bob holds dear up in flames.