Emma, young and with a touch of attitude, finds herself spending the weekend with her parents visiting her sick grandmother in the country. It's the last place she wants to be. When her parents unexpectedly need to return to the city for work, she is left to care for her grandmother alone and for longer than she expected. Reluctant at first she becomes determined to prove to herself and to her mother that she can cope. Emma's mood lifts when her grandmother begins to tell her stories of the time she spent serving in army hospitals during the war and Emma soon begins to draw comparisons with her own life. This is a tale of life, love and death set in modern day Australia and the Pacific during World War Two.