Shot down on his first RAF mission James Hunter spends his war in a German prison camp The other captive soldiers busy themselves planning their escapes but James dedicates himself to a detailed study of the redstarts nesting just beyond the camp boundaries -- a project that gives him something to live for & earns him an unusual ally in the Kommandant in charge of the camp Rose James's young wife is spending her war in a cottage on the lip of Ashdown Forest in Sussex with her dog Harris for company She'd hardly known James before he went away & can barely engage with his letters which talk of nothing but birds Now she has fallen in love with someone else -- Toby a young pilot home on sick leave They meet secretly at night Then James's brusque sister Enid is bombed out of her flat in London & comes to live in Rose's tiny cottage Little more than strangers both women are guarded & Rose tries to conceal her affair from Enid But later both look back on this strange interlude as one of their happiest Beautifully written & full of moments of hope The Evening Chorus is a stirring story about love & the natural world set against the backdrop of the Second World War