It’s the early 1940s, and Alice (Gemma Arterton) is an already curmudgeonly young woman, living in a house on the edge of a cliff in Kent, having as little to do with the nearby as village as allowed (they all think she’s a witch anyway, as all single woman of a certain age are), and she loathes children. But somehow, she’s been chosen to look after Frank (Lucas Bond), a young boy whose father is a pilot fighting on the front in Europe, and whose mother’s new Ministry job means she must stay in London, where bombs are frequently dropping. Alice tries to give him back but the local school principle (Tom Courteney) to no avail.