As Tim waves to the footplate men on the 'Coronation Scot' one morning in early September, 1939, he little realises how much his life is about to change. Britain has just declared war on Nazi Germany, and the kids of Liverpool, where he lives, must run for cover.

Tim is evacuated to Shropshire, far away from his Mum and Dad, exchanging back alleys for country lanes, and his life as a city boy for that of a farm lad, while, not very far away, British fighter-pilots are holding back a powerful enemy.

And now he has enemies of his own. A super-strict Headmistress, who doesn't want city boys in her school, and unfriendly local lads who think they are sissies. But, like his nation, street-wise Tim is determined to survive.