Robert Westall

During the Second World War, a group of youth in the Northeast England town of Garmouth regularly suffer from bomb attacks by the German forces. One of the children raids a crashed German aircraft and takes a fully operational machine gun, intending to set up their own fortress. Playing with it causes a German plane to crash-land; the kids befriend the pilot, who is unaware that they had caused him to crash.

Anne, miserable and rebellious at her parents' recent separation, finds herself drawn to the Watch House, the home of the Garmouth Life Brigade. Something, or someone, is trying to reach her. But what do they want?