After losing his lover in a tragic motorcar accident, Leslie Atwater goes about the motions but doesn’t really feel alive. Not without Edward. In a time where “one of us” was a euphemism for being gay, Leslie and Edward managed to live a quiet, private life together, but nothing prepares Leslie for a world without his partner.

During the day, Leslie works as a clerk in a modest bookshop in central London. By night, he’s an air raid warden in his district responsible for the safety of his “flock.” In an effort to feel closer to Edward, Leslie spends evenings in his flat reviewing Edward’s portfolio of sketches. Edward had worked as a freelance artist, and his depiction of Londoners surviving in the midst of World War II appeared daily in The Globe .

While reviewing the drawings, Leslie discovers irregularities in the sketches from Edward’s final assignment which he simply can’t explain. He begins to question what he was told about Edward’s death, and his investigation leads him down a tangled trail from the center of London to the coast of Great Britain.

Tension mounts and nothing is what it seems. In a showdown with German spies at a lighthouse overlooking the English Channel, bombs fall, people die, and Leslie gets more than he bargains for in his search for the truth behind his lover’s untimely death.