Edith Taylor is a walking example of the typical, 16 year old girl. She has several friends, a doting boyfriend, and a whole entire summer in front of her. Yet, sometimes the universe isn't fair, and instead of having the summer of her adolescent dreams, she is caught up in the 2nd World War, which sends her all the way over to a dreary village in Wales. Friendless, hopeless and slightly depressed, she finds refuge in an old oak tree, where she then encounters a very strange boy named Asa.