Tina, a bright and rebellious ten-year-old from Jamaica, leaves her homeland in 1968 to join her mother in Britain. But instead of receiving a warm welcome, Tina is forced to attend an ESN school, where she is treated as inferior due to her Jamaican heritage.
The story follows Marshall, an army soldier, and Joan, a navy seaman apprentice, who meet on a Greyhound Bus while in uniform. Their encounter sparks a year-long correspondence through letters, becoming their sole means of communication. Despite the depth of their written exchanges, they never speak or meet again during this time, exploring themes of connection and longing in a unique and constrained relationship.