At Willows Edge

In the final months of World War II, newly-wedded Thomas and Gilda Gardner make their home at Willows Edge, in the village of Englewood, Warwickshire. Thomas is assigned as a RAF training instructor at Lindley Field, having been wounded in France on D-day, and Gilda resumes her war work at nearby Greystone Manor. Under the direction of Mrs. Eleanor Wood, her mentor and owner of the estate, Gilda assists in the kitchen, feeding the airmen billeted there. Good news from the continent gives false hope that the war will soon be over, and Eleanor makes plans to host a celebratory Christmas, hoping that the unwed mother of her grandson can be persuaded to come. In some kind of final insult to the war-battered people of England, the V-2 bombs come on the scene, and the threat they pose unnerves even the steady Priscilla Armstrong. The destruction of one such explosion is far-reaching and ultimately risks the safety and happiness of those many miles from its impact. Eleanor and her staff at Greystone Manor once again provide a safe haven to those in harm's way, welcoming lonely newcomers, including an innocent orphaned love child, who finds herself in a grownup world she cannot understand. Eleanor works selflessly toward the physical comfort of those in her home, investing personally in their ultimate happiness, while her own heart is rent in two by the agonizing hope that her son is still alive.