Before the war it was just a few of them who went sailing on the North Sea estuary in their little boat. Guy, who was so handsome and so good at everything; Matt, his younger brother, who was determined not to be a cripple; and Lizzie, their small shy cousin who adored them both. They were later joined by two more Anna, a young Jewish refugee from Vienna, and Otto, sent from Berlin to an English public school in order to spy for his Nazi father.