Daisy lives at Twistleton Hall, along with her unmarried Aunt Augusta, and the spirits of her four dead uncles from World War One. Her life therefore has been overshadowed by the Great War, as has those of her friends Freddie and Lorna who live nearby. Daisy, always looking to escape the gloom of the Hall, has known them since the three girls were all sent for a smattering of education to the Court, where Freddie's Aunt Jessie purported to run a small private school. Now it is 1938, invasion is expected, but the bit of their country that turns out to be most in need of defending is their own beloved Twistleton, but not as it happens from the Nazis.