Elli, a Romany girl, has finally married Rueben the German Jewish Manager of her mill. She is horrified by news coming from Germany about the way Jews are being treated and she involves her own family in attempts to save Jewish children and to provide homes for them in England. The horror of war comes to Sussex after 1939. Farmworkers go into the Forces and Land Army girls arrive, Searchlight batteries are set up on the Downs, extinguishing the gentle light of the Fireflies so beloved by Elli. She notes the change in peoples' attitudes towards one another as the dangers of war involve her own rural life. Everybody extracts what pleasure they can from life's simple things, knowing they may never see a tomorrow. She walks the farm, making friends of the Land Army girls; she looks for peace and comfort away from the war, and trying to immerse herself in gypsy roots as she watches and listens, seeking advice from the bees.