Andrews tells the story of two working class young cousins from Liverpool, moved to enroll as volunteer nurses to help the wounded on the Western Front during the Great War. Mae Strickland's mother died from childbed fever just a few days after her birth. Her heartbroken father works as a stoker on the steamships that run from the Liverpool Docks. His life is at sea so his sister Maggie raises Mae along with her children, Eddie and Alice. This proposition was too much for Maggie's husband however, who deserted the family prior to Alice's birth.

When war is declared Eddie and his friends join up and leave for what they think will be a great adventure. Mae's father is working as a stoker on the non-military ship, Lusitania, when she is torpedoed and sunk by a German U-boat, causing the deaths of 1,198 passengers and crew. The loss of her father leads Mae and her cousin Alice into nursing and across the Channel to the killing fields of France.

Andrew's doesn't hide the harsh realities of life and death on the Western front in her story. It's told along with all the gritty reality and horrors that were faced by the men and women who served. For me, some of the text didn't seem to flow quite right, but this is a good read, especially with the 100th commemorations approaching. ( )