Charlie "Sneak" Sawyer never wanted to leave London, despite his uneasy relationship with his grandfather. But when the orders come for children to evacuate as the world teeters on the brink of war, Grandad insists Charlie leaves with the rest.

Months pass; the expected bombing of London doesn't happen, and kids begin drifting back from the countryside. After a year spent toiling for a grumpy farmer, Charlie's had enough. He decides to sneak home to London, whatever it takes.

Shortly before he turns thirteen, Charlie does just that, only to be waylaid by Lucie Marie Meadows, a precocious eight-year-old girl with golden eyes.

A girl who might be able to see ghosts. A girl who's keeping secrets.

Charlie and Lucie arrive in London the afternoon of September 7, 1940--the very afternoon when Nazi planes cross the sky and drop their first deadly loads. The Blitz has begun.

Suddenly, London is a fiery, smoking maze of rubble, danger, and chaos. The explosions are so terrifying even the ghost of a WWI soldier roams the theater he haunts, unable to rest.

Somehow, with a rescued dog called Smoke, Charlie and Lucie must search for answers--and the people they love.

Award-winning author Deborah Hopkinson weaves together a remarkable tale that is at once a rollicking, hair-raising adventure and a moving story about family, courage, and the heroism of everyday people during the devastating Blitz.