A compelling novel of complicated love from one of Ireland's greatest living writers. It is the Second World War & tragedy strikes many families in Irel&. But it is also a thrilling time in which to be a child & Polly spending months at her grandparents' house by the sea barely notices the adults' grief & their efforts to escape the tyranny of religion & family expectation. However in time Polly too will have a secret. No one else knows the location of her beloved uncle Sam barely older than Polly herself who is meant to be in Cambridge but is dreaming of Communist Cuba while his decimated family fears losing another son. & as Polly shyly approaches womanhood her love for Sam turns into something more explosive.