It is 1940 and Birmingham is about to see some of the most devastating air raids of the Blitz. Two very different young women, Violet Simms and Grace Templeton, need every ounce of strength they possess to cope with the loss and tragedy surrounding them. But through the storm clouds of war they discover something that helps them through - a friendship that is to last a lifetime. Violet is a shy, lonely girl who is controlled by her widowed mother. She longs to escape and dreams of love. Desperate to do something for the war effort she volunteers as an ARP warden, and in the course of her rescue work meets and falls in love with a young policeman, George Cherry. Seeing longed-for kindness and fun, Violet feels her life is changed forever until, on one of the worst nights of the Blitz, George disappears . . . Grace, a striking beauty from a family of ten children, is lively, adventurous and desperate not to be tied down by marriage and children. Her childhood friend, Jimmy Oval, adores her but she wants much more. She's looking for excitement and in the blacked-out city where not everyone is full of community spirit, her looks attract attention and she discovers she has less control of her life than she thought. When one of the most-loved families in the street is bombed out, Grace, heartbroken and vulnerable, begins to realize that having love in her life might not be such a terrible idea.