It's Christmas 1979 and East/West relations are at their best since the end of World War II. Having won a competition to report on the Moscow Olympics, Mary Granger, a junior reporter with epilepsy, has the world at her feet. Then on Christmas Eve the Soviets invade Afghanistan, setting in motion a series of events that would define the rest of her life. After falling for a Russian athlete, Mary arrives home a changed person and immediately decides to leave the family home. That's when she meets Anna, a mysterious homeless woman, who provides comfort when Mary hears of her lover's conscription, and shortly afterwards that he is missing, presumed dead. By Christmas 1984, things look bleak both for the world and for Mary. Having lost her job and suffered a failed relationship, she finds herself in a home that can only be described as hell. When Anna gives her some devastating news, things take a turn for the worse, until. a global fund-raising initiative changes everything. Set partly in Mrs Thatcher's Britain and partly in the Afghan warzone, Turtles on The Beach tells the story of how the Berlin Wall was breached by the love of two people from opposing sides of the iron curtain. It shows how worldwide events can affect us all as individuals, and ultimately how they take second place to destiny in shaping our lives.