Strangers in Time

In late 1944, London remains under German air attack. Charlie Matters, who has not yet turned fourteen, lives in poverty with his grandmother after losing his parents and grandfather. He skips school, steals to obtain food and clothing, and survives by taking odd jobs. After failing to break into St. Saviour's School, he steals money and a blank journal from a bookshop called The Book Keep. When he learns that its owner, Ignatius Oliver, is a poor widower rather than a wealthy merchant, Charlie returns the money. Oliver explains that the shop belonged to his late wife, Imogen, and gives Charlie the journal. Molly Wakefield, fifteen, has just returned to London after years evacuated in Suffolk. She finds her mother absent and her father inexplicably missing, despite a note apparently confirming his work at the Ministry of Food.

Charlie and Molly meet when she seeks the ministry's offices. He helps her get there and later returns her home, initially refusing her offered payment. Their friendship develops as Molly uses medical skills learned while caring for wounded soldiers to help Charlie, and Charlie introduces her to parts of London she does not know. Charlie's grandmother dies shortly after her bakery wages are halved, leaving him without a home or guardian. Molly helps arrange the burial and takes him into her family home. The house is subsequently destroyed in an air raid that kills her nanny, Mrs. Pride. Oliver shelters the two children at The Book Keep even though he fears they could be sent to an orphanage. Molly obtains work as a nurse auxiliary, while Charlie becomes a telegram messenger, initially using a false name. They experience further loss when Charlie's acquaintances Eddie Gray and Lonzo Rossi die. Detective Inspector Willoughby's brutal treatment of Lonzo eventually leads to his and another constable's arrest.

The children also become suspicious of Oliver's secret exchanges with a visitor later identified as Cedric Axmann. They see documents change hands, discover a cipher machine and German-language material in Cedric's room, and find George Sand novels with hollowed-out pages concealing messages. After Oliver's neighbor Desdemona Macklin is murdered, Cedric threatens the children because they have overheard his conversations. A confrontation by a river appears to leave Oliver shot dead, but Major Scott Bryant of the British Security Service reveals that the shooting was staged. Oliver has been working for Britain's Double-Cross intelligence operation, feeding misleading information to the Germans while maintaining the appearance of cooperation with Cedric. Bryant explains that Imogen initially passed information to German intelligence after the devastation of the Blitz. She later confessed to Oliver, helped establish his cover with German agents, and informed British intelligence. Oliver continued the deception after Imogen's death. The planned military consequences of the false intelligence are described as hopes rather than confirmed results.

Molly's investigation of her father exposes a different secret. Herbert Wakefield formerly worked in British intelligence, and the Ministry of Food position was a cover. Molly learns that her mother, Eloise, was assaulted by British servicemen while taking shelter during a bombing raid. According to Mrs. Pride and later Herbert, police officials refused to investigate despite information identifying at least one attacker. Herbert used his government experience to track down and kill three men whom he blamed for the assault. The authorities pursued him, froze his accounts, and watched the Wakefield home. Eloise has spent years at the Beneficial Institute in Cornwall. At the institute, Molly discovers that her mother underwent lobotomy procedures and has a separate, terminal kidney disease. With help from Oliver and Bryant, the children travel to Cornwall. Molly experiences a brief reunion with Eloise, but attempts to bring her back to London fail. Oliver learns that Imogen died by suicide from a cliff near the institute and, in his grief, consciously chooses to continue living because he and the children need one another.

Herbert eventually appears at the institute and attempts to flee with Eloise. He admits the killings and describes his grievances against officials who had refused to protect her. Eloise leaves his car before he drives away; police pursue Herbert, who is killed in the chase. Eloise dies three nights later with Molly at her bedside. The Tinsdale relatives in Yorkshire arrange for both parents' burial and offer to support Molly's university education. Molly nonetheless chooses to remain with Charlie and Oliver, whom she regards as her immediate family. As 1945 begins, the three discuss lives beyond the war. During a V-2 rocket attack in late January, Oliver is killed while carrying out his air-raid warden duties and attempting to reach a shelter threatened by the bombardment. His will leaves The Book Keep to Molly and Charlie in equal shares when they come of age, with life insurance funds to support the shop. They plan to live temporarily with the Tinsdales before returning to the home he has given them.

In the closing chapter, set decades after the war, fifty-one-year-old Molly Danvers is a clinical psychiatrist, divorced and raising two children. She runs the thriving Book Keep and has completed Imogen's unfinished novel under their joint names; publishers are considering the manuscript, but publication has not yet occurred. Charlie lives in Australia with his wife Meredith and their five children. He and Molly maintain a close friendship despite the distance. Walking through London, Molly remembers finding Oliver's body after the fatal rocket attack and reflects on the losses and relationships that shaped their lives. Her completed manuscript is principally a tribute to Oliver, whose intervention gave both children companionship and a lasting home.