Catherine M. Byrne

As an island nurse during WW2, Annie Reid dreams of reclaiming her family’s stolen inheritance and providing a future for her son. Her close friend, Magnus, offers her marriage and a secure future. Her heart, however, belongs to her first love, Alexander Garcia, who left years ago to fight in Spain.

For Isa and Davie Reid, life has led them and their children away from their beloved Scotland to an equally difficult life in the weather-scarred, dusty, Canadian prairies of the early 1900s....

On the 14th of April, 1920, Chrissie Reid received a letter from a dead man. No one knew he was dead and buried in the byre, except herself. Since that fateful night 14 years ago, she had thought herself safe. Now, that security has been shattered....

Fifteen-year-old Isa Muirison loves her life working for the floating shops of Orkney at the turn of the 20th century. But her happy family life is thrown into turmoil by her father’s decision to emigrate to Canada, her sister’s illness, and her own love for Davie....

Hitler is marching across Europe. When the book begins, war is only a rumor. Mary Rosie enjoys the excitement the influx of young servicemen bring to the area, especially one charismatic RAF pilot, to the dismay of Johnny, the boy who expects to marry her.

The Great War is over, and the inhabitants of Raumsey Island struggle to regain their livelihood. Seventeen-year-old Annie Reid is a spirited, ambitious girl, determined not to end up a herring gutter or go into service.