Widow Emma Taylor and her beloved daughter Olivia have always managed just fine on their own, but with shadows of war on the horizon and the legal restrictions prohibiting widows from most employment opportunities, she’s left with only one option: persuading the manageress at Boots’ Booklover’s Library to take a chance on her with a job. Then the unthinkable happens: as England prepares to enter the war, Olivia must be evacuated to the countryside. Emma seeks solace in the unlikely friendships she forms with her neighbors and coworkers, and a renewed sense of purpose through the recommendations she provides to the library’s quirky regulars – including the (very handsome!) Mr. Fisk. But the job doesn’t come without its difficulties: books are mysteriously misshelved and disappearing, she desperately misses her daughter, and the library forces her to confront the memories of her late father and the bookstore they once owned together before a terrible accident.