So it is only her strong instinct for survival that sees Lizzie through the snobbish school to which she wins a scholarship, through the life-threatening horrors of consumption, and through the dark clouds of impending war. After school and a stint as a butcher's clerk, she goes to work as a bus conductress and, through hard work and inheritance, manages to save enough to invest in a property. And then fortune smiles on her in the game of love.
Happily married after the war to Charlie Wilson, she relishes the prospect of a now secure future with her family. But Charlie has other ideas. Ideas that will take Lizzie to a lonely life in Devon, to the challenges of a new career, and away from her beloved London.