It is 1915 and eight year-old Alice Moore has just been left in the care of her autocratic grandmother at Ballydavid, a lovely old house in the south of Ireland. At first lonely and homesick, Alice gradually becomes involved in the lives of a Catholic boy whom she hero-worships, a psychic countess down on her luck, an admired governess and colorful neighbors. In the background always is the Great War, and in Ireland there is the threat of revolution. While the family mourns an uncle killed in France, blood is spilled closer to home. As tensions mount, Alice must choose between her heritage of privilege, her growing moral conscience, and the demands of the future.