When war is declared in 1939 Polly O'Brady is working in a shop in Liverpool. Her friend Tad in Dublin joins the navy, however, and her pal Sunny is in the Air Force, so Polly decides when she is old enough she will join up, too. Polly's father has had a stroke and Polly tries to persuade her mother to take her father back to Dublin, where there is no war. Then Polly could leave home. But she has reckoned without the Luftwaffe. The city is bombed and Polly's parents refuse to cut and run when their adopted city - and their family - are in mortal danger...