Ada wakes from surgery to find Jamie tearfully revealing that their mother was killed in a London bombing raid.

Susan clarifies her arrangements referred to funeral plans and confirms that Ada and Jamie will remain living with her.

Ada's final cast is removed and she weeps with joy and relief upon seeing her corrected foot for the first time.

Ada, Susan, and Jamie move into a large furnished cottage on the Thorton estate and Ada places her new shoes on her bookshelf.

Lady Thorton arrives to announce the government has requisitioned Thorton House and she will be moving into the cottage with the family.

Lord Thorton arrives with Ruth, a 16-year-old German Jewish refugee, announcing that Susan will tutor her for Oxford entrance exams.

Lady Thorton refuses to accept Ruth's Jewish identity as meaningful, declaring that a German is a German regardless of religion.

Jonathan visits unexpectedly and encourages Ruth to describe the devastating anti-Jewish persecution her family endured before fleeing Germany.

Jonathan secretly wakes Ada, Ruth, and Maggie at dawn to go riding; Oban bolts unexpectedly and Ada holds on with exhilaration.

A telegraph boy arrives at the cottage with news that Jonathan Thorton's plane exploded over the English Channel.

Doctor Graham diagnoses Susan with pneumonia and insists she be rushed to a hospital in London immediately.

Ada visits the recovering Susan in the London hospital and whispers that she loves her for the first time.

A German Messerschmitt is shot down over the village and crashes into the street; Lady Thorton is devastated by the burned pilot inside.

Ada uses her savings to travel alone to Maggie's boarding school and tricks the headmistress into releasing Maggie to come home.

Ada brings Susan and Jamie to visit Becky's grave on her birthday, where they meet Becky's mother and reconnect as family.

Pool 1 follows the central arc of Ada's story, beginning with her clubfoot surgery and the sudden death of her abusive mother, and tracing her gradual healing under Susan's care in Kent. The arrival of Ruth, a German Jewish refugee, forces the household to confront deep prejudice, while the ever-present war grows darker and more personal. Jonathan Thorton's death devastates the household and becomes a turning point in Lady Thorton's transformation from an aloof aristocrat into a grieving, humbled woman. Susan's near-fatal bout of pneumonia forces Ada to reckon with how completely she has come to depend on and love her guardian. Through each crisis, Ada grows bolder and more empathetic, ultimately traveling alone to retrieve Maggie for Lady Thorton and gifting Susan a visit to Becky's grave as a birthday tribute.

The headline events of Ada's wartime journey from surgery to sisterhood.

Jamie and Susan present Ada with her first pair of matching leather shoes before she is discharged from the hospital.

Ada runs for the very first time, racing joyfully from the cottage to the stable to see her pony Butter.

Stephen White presents Susan with a framed photograph of Becky recovered from the bombed ruins of their shared home.

Maggie Thorton arrives home from boarding school for the Christmas holidays and comes to visit Ada at the cottage.

Jamie falls from a tree and breaks his arm; Lady Thorton covers him with her coat while the village doctor is fetched.

Susan gives Ada Butter's official ownership papers as a replacement Christmas gift, making the pony legally Ada's own.

Lady Thorton moves into the cottage and fills Ada's bedroom with Maggie's belongings without asking Ada's permission.

Lady Thorton snatches Ruth's incoming letter and opens it in front of the household, devastating Ruth and upsetting the children.

Ada brings Ruth to the stables for the first time, and they ride Butter together while Lady Thorton is away.

Lady Thorton confronts Ada and Ruth after catching them riding together against her orders, moments before the telegraph boy appears.

Oban falls dangerously ill with colic and Ruth instructs Ada to keep the horse walking through the night to save his life.

Lord and Lady Thorton present Ada with Oban's halter and read aloud a letter revealing Jonathan intended to name his plane 'Invincible Ada.'

Ada declares that since Oban is now hers to give, she wants to give the horse to Ruth as a gift.

Ada and Jamie sleep beside the fire holding Jamie's cat Bovril through the night while awaiting news of Susan's hospital condition.

Susan is discharged from the London hospital and returns home to Kent, relieving the household's desperate fears.

Pool 2 follows the significant but less headline-grabbing events that give texture to Ada's world in wartime Kent. From Ada's first shoes and her very first run to Jamie's broken arm and the turbulent arrival of Ruth, these moments show the daily fabric of life in the cottage under the pressures of war and rationing. Ada and Ruth's friendship is traced through secret riding trips, a shared confidence about Ada's clubfoot, and a confrontation that ends just as terrible news arrives. Jonathan's legacy lives on in a gift of Oban and Ada's brave decision to pass the horse to Ruth, and the pool closes with the household's terrified overnight vigil during Susan's pneumonia and the relief of her safe return.

The quieter moments that built Ada's household bonds and tested her courage.

Recovering in hospital, Ada secretly asks a nurse what orphanages are like, convinced she and Jamie will be sent to one.

Ada learns the Thortons paid for her surgery and feels confused resentment at the obligation to show them gratitude.

Stephen White reveals that his younger brother Billy and his three sisters were all killed in a London bombing raid.

Lady Thorton insists on inspecting Ada's surgically corrected foot, and Ada reluctantly exposes the foot she has always been ashamed of.

Ada volunteers for fire-watching duty at the church steeple despite being terrified of climbing the narrow ladder to the top.

Ada asks Susan about her deceased friend Becky, including where she is buried, and Susan answers with tears in her eyes.

Ruth removes pork sausage from her plate at dinner, prompting Susan to explain Judaism to Ada and Jamie for the first time.

Susan sharply overrules Lady Thorton's demand that Ada and Jamie finish their dinner, declaring firmly that the children are her responsibility.

Ada leaps to Ruth's defense at the dinner table when Lady Thorton sighs at her dismissively, and Susan backs Ada up.

Lady Thorton is shocked to learn that Ada's family could never afford beef shins and that Ada spent childhood confined to one room.

Jamie insists their mother was always angry at everything, and Ada realizes with sudden relief that Mam's cruelty was never her fault.

Ada tells Ruth she has always wanted a sister; Ruth admits she has always wanted a sister too.

Ada draws a life map placing Susan at the center wielding a sword, showing Susan's heroic importance in her world.

Ruth, Maggie, and Ada hold hands in their shared bedroom and declare themselves 'schwestern' sisters on Christmas night.

Lady Thorton takes Ada to the bombed ruins of Elsa Street where Ada grew up, and Ada feels overwhelming relief that life is behind her.

Pool 3 charts the interior turning points of the novel: the specific moments when a character's understanding fundamentally shifts. Ada's terror of abandonment after Mam's death, her resentment of the Thortons' charity, and her slow dismantling of prejudice toward Ruth are traced through a series of revelatory scenes that span the full story. The pool captures Ada's expanding emotional intelligence as she defends Ruth at the dinner table, forces Lady Thorton to confront her own class blindness, and finally absorbs Jamie's quiet observation that Mam's cruelty was never Ada's fault. Bonds of chosen family crystallize as Ada draws Susan at the center of her life map and the three girls declare themselves sisters. The pool closes with Ada standing in the bombed ruins of Elsa Street, confronting her past and feeling, for the first time, that it is truly behind her.

The discoveries and shifts that changed how Ada sees herself, others, and her place in the world.