Liverpool, 1939: Sixteen-year-old Lizzy Atherton is forced to flee her violent step-father in the middle of the night, and finds herself stranded on a station platform completely alone. Desperate to know what has become of her beloved mother, who she had no choice but to leave behind, Lizzy returns the next day only to find her home deserted. Devastated, Lizzy joins forces with her old school friend Dolly and Clara, an escaped evacuee, and vows to find her mother whatever it takes. But the war rages on and demands on the home front take Lizzy's life in a host of unexpected directions, and hopes of finding her mother gradually start to fade. If Lizzy can muster the strength to keep searching, she might just get her Christmas wish after all.