Embers in the London Sky

Readying to escape her abusive husband, Aleida Martens has prepared for every eventuality, but then the Nazis invade the Netherlands. Her husband uses the confusion of fleeing refugees to finally get rid of their three-year-old son, Theo, who was born with a congenital limb difference, and sends him across the Channel with a British family. Aleida is desperate to find Theo, but in the confusion of war, thousands of children are living in the English countryside separate from their loved ones. Aleida’s job at the ministry of health uncovers neglect and abuse unseen by bureaucrats in London. This brings her into contact with Hugh Collingwood, a top BBC correspondent and secretly asthmatic aristocrat who is determined to tell the human stories of the Blitz, including Aleida’s heartbreaking search for the missing Theo. When Hugh’s uncle is murdered, Hugh and Aleida suspect there might be a connection between other deaths, the plight of refugees, and the censorship at the BBC.