A Green and Ancient Light

With his country caught in the midst of battle (a distorted version of World War II), a young boy is shipped off to his grandmother's home in the countryside for safety. When an enemy plane is shot down near their village, the boy and his grandmother find the wounded survivor in the woods considered haunted by the villagers. Thus there is no one around to witness the pair help the pilot hide on the grounds of a long-abandoned estate. No one, that is, except Mr. Girondole, an old friend of the boy's grandmother, who happens to be a faun. The three work together to nurse the man back to health, but when a tenacious army major comes looking for the downed pilot, they will all be in danger. Durbin (Dragonfly) gives his story an old-fashioned fairy-tale feel (with the exception of Mr. Girondole, the other characters are given initials) and imbues his settings with a languorous sense of being outside of time.