The bombs fall at night. So do their defenses. 1940s rural England is bound by blackout curtains and whispered reputations. Thomas Whitaker is the village charmer — always with a girl on his arm, always the last to leave the hall. Oliver has watched him for years. When the air raid sirens drive them underground into a narrow brick shelter, fear turns to heat, and heat turns into something neither man can deny. In the darkness beneath the village, where no one can see and no one can hear, Thomas discovers a hunger no girl has ever satisfied. By daylight, he's still the womanizer. But when the sirens sound, Oliver is already halfway across the field. War drives them underground. Desire keeps them there.