Then I hear the whistle of the train, and the sound takes me back to the farm near Cornell, back to the winter of 1930... So Blaine Williams begins to recall his troubled childhood in rural Ontario during the Great Depression, his adolescence at the onset of World War 2, and his illegal participation in the War at Dieppe when he was only seventeen. In a novel with panoramic, historical sweep, a young boy's growth to manhood is recorded with warmth and insight. Through his memory, Monica Hughes offers an exceptionally evocative story.