As war drags on, Beliers Priory in East Barsetshire, home to Sir Harry and Lady Waring, becomes a convalescent hospital for soldiers as well as home to their niece Leslie, and Capt. Noel and Lydia Merton from West Barsetshire. In the meantime, Philip Winter meets Leslie, their relationship developing subsequent problems which are finally resolved. Romance proceeds apace "downstairs" as well as "upstairs", where a trio of followers is pursuing Selina, the housemaid, with eventually a most suitable conclusion. But the stationmaster whose son is a POW in Germany, Tommy Needham's amputated arm, and everyone's uncertainty about absent friends and relatives form sombre countrepoints to the general attitude of "soldiering on". As Lydia observes: they are "growing up."