Soon after England declared war on Germany in 1939, Lancashire housewife Nella Last began writing a diary as part of a public project. She was 49 and fearful that she wouldn't be able to cope with her son's enlistment and life alone with her domineering husband. Recounts her experience of wartime privations, but also her dawning sense of independence. Amid the hardships of food rations and air raids, Nella's volunteer work for the war effort fills her with an exhilarating sense of purpose.