In war-torn England, in September 1941, thirteen-year-old Harry Lockwood steps off the train and embarks on his new life at Markham College, a boys' boarding school near London. With his father stationed in North Africa and his mother working in a munitions factory a hundred miles away, he is on his own.

Soon, Harry finds himself fighting for survival in a new world where the misuse of power by sadistic prefects creates a closed society ruled by fear and violence. As if this is not enough, Hitler's bombardment of Britain with terrifying V1 flying bombs and V2 ballistic missiles threatens to destroy him.

Harry's tale is one of lost innocence, of war, of loyalty and of love.