In 1939 Esther Ballantine began an exchange of letters with stranger Dorothy Norris as part of the government's ongoing war effort. Years later, asked to tell the story of her war, she begins to piece those letters together. Esther expects it will make for the usual coming-of-age story; dreams shared, loves cherished, the long waits and news they craved all with the spectre of war looming over them. But the story that unfolds is bigger than even she could have anticipated, shedding light on long-kept family secrets that shake the foundation of her familial mundanity. From the marshes of Maldon England, to the coming of the Atom bomb, theirs is no small story; it's a tale of mystery, love, adventure, and at the heart of it all, a transatlantic friendship