In the summer of 1939, nineteen-year-old Flore Baum is having the time of her life in Paris. But when war breaks out, Flore's fragile happiness is shattered, and she embarks upon a journey that will eventually take her to Palestine, to the realisation of the nature of true love, and to the brink of despair... Hannah Karalis, a teenager living with her family in 1980s Notting Hill, becomes fascinated by her neighbour, Flora Dobbs, an enigmatic elderly woman - but the improbable friendship that the two strike up is abruptly cut short by Flora's sudden departure from the neighbourhood. Eighteen years later, Hannah is astonished to receive a bequest from Flora, a black notebook, which sets her on a search for the truth, leading her to confront the ghosts that lurk in both their pasts.