The story opens in August 1914 in the Santa Ynez Valley in California. Michael Clifton—youngest son of an Englishman who had emigrated to America when he was in his late teens, in search of his fortune—has just purchased a tract of land he believes is rich with oil. Fate steps in when Michael learns Britain is going to war in Europe. In a moment of loyalty to his father’s homeland, he decides to travel to England to enlist for service.In the spring of 1932, after Michael’s remains are discovered in France, his wealthy parents hire Maisie Dobbs to find the woman—identified only as “The English Nurse”—who wrote a series of love letters discovered among Michael’s belongings.The investigation takes Maisie from London’s most exclusive drawing rooms to its most downtrodden neighborhoods, forcing her to wrestle with memories of serving as a nurse in the Great War and of the passionate wartime romance that ended in tragedy. But as she delves into what she discovers to be a long-hidden crime, the investigator realizes unearthing buried secrets can lead to present-day danger.
