What do we really know about the lives of others? The villagers of rural Ippenbury in 1913 puzzle over their new schoolmistress, as Adele reveals very little about herself and almost nothing of her past. Telling her story, using her letters and journals, she recounts the enormous changes in the village during the Great War, including her responses to wounded soldiers recovering in the old mill hospital. She keeps her own life and loves private, but we can follow their twists and turns, even if it is only later that we begin to understand what has driven her reaction to these challenges and the tragic epidemic that followed. Her life in Ippenbury may have been her graveyard of ambition, but her story could be true of many others during these turbulent years, or indeed now. This provocative and compelling exploration of life, passion, love and ambition may leave you questioning how much we really understand about those around us.