England, 1939: When Alice marries twinkly-eyed, kind-hearted vicar David, it means leaving everything from her old life behind and moving into the draughty vicarage in the beautiful but remote village of Goswell, Cumbria. Though homesick, she's determined to make a new life there for herself and her husband. But soon tragedy strikes, and Alice is devastated when war breaks out and David chooses to sign up to fight. But everything changes when she's asked to take in a child evacuee, and she makes a promise to protect this girl, no matter what it costs her... England, Present Day: When Jane and her family move to the small coastal village of Goswell where her husband grew up, she's afraid she might have made a huge mistake. Their new home-in what had once been the vicarage-feels a million miles from their previous fast-paced life in New York City, and Jane struggles with her empty days that seem lonely and purposeless. But then she finds a small note, forgotten behind a shelf in the pantry, a note written during the Second World War by a woman named Alice, whose incredible story has the power to change everything... The first book in the Goswell Quartet, this novel combines two wives' stories-seventy years apart-that both focus on courage, finding a home, and how the unexpected arrival of someone else's story in your life can change your own. Perfect for fans of Fiona Valpy, Lucinda Riley, and Barbara O'Neal, it can be enjoyed as a standalone novel.