Savagery in Europe and beyond persists but now with smart, sassy Americans joining the fight against Hitler's aggression, while Lesley's startling announcement leads her to a challenging new way of life. Enthusiasm initially in short supply, she is plunged into a different world, where new skills and the horrors of war test her endurance and resolve to the limit.

Meanwhile Stevie and Luuk, the Dutch boy rescued from the clutches of the Gestapo, now live safely in the Highlands of Scotland amongst a mixed bag of evacuees where Stevie proves a worthy beneficiary of the crown he is destined to wear. Lesley, never failing to maintain close contact with the boy whose life she salvaged, continues to keep a finger on the pulse of his journey and those of the evacuees too, often with hilarious consequences, while her own transformation at last culminates in an experience of the romantic kind.

The closing scene of Stevie's journey prematurely catapults him to his rightful place at the head of the ancient Scottish family on the Harley Muir Estate, which means that for Lesley, her work there is done. .