Two women from different generations connect over their shared need to recover from trauma as they attempt to heal and begin their lives anew, from the bestselling author of The Dressmaker's Gift and The Beekeeper's Promise

2001: Overwhelmed by grief in the wake of losing her twin sister, Ruby Reid has come to the north of Scotland to escape. Her new job as companion to Hanna Kristiansen, an elderly woman living on a rugged homestead in the wild and remote Shetland Islands, offers plenty of challenges and a welcome distraction from the devastating choice Ruby has to make.

1940: Hanna’s quiet life on the fjords of northern Norway is overturned when her hometown is attacked and her country falls into the hands of Nazi occupiers. But the Norwegians are a people as resilient as the ancient bedrock of their land. With her twin sister Hanna becomes involved in the resistance movement, fighting to end the war that has taken so much from her. She’s sent to Scotland for training, where she falls for a charismatic member of the shadowy special forces supporting Norway’s fight for freedom. Though she's torn between staying and going, Hanna must return to her homeland, leaving her new love behind, and face the dangerous underground work that lies ahead.

As Hanna shares her story, Ruby begins to navigate the path of her grief. Hanna in turn finds comfort in discovering that confiding in her younger friend is helping them both heal. Ruby also learns that, like the beautiful untamed land of Hanna’s rural croft, there is strength to be found in fragility, as well as hope for new life, in the wildness of an island at the end of the world.