Into the Smoke is a novel from the village of Dentdale. Sitting close on the border of Staffordshire and Derbyshire, the village is a small rural community, close to the market towns of Ashbourne and Leek. Set near to the River Dove, the lives of the villagers are disturbed when a travelling circus descends on the area. The hero of the book, eight-year-old, Harry Gibbons, is driven to right a great wrong. The events that he unleashes, send him on a life-changing adventure, as he travels from his small farming community, to a Great War in Flanders. As a young man, he fights for his country and witnesses the events of 1917. Harry is fortunate to have a great friend-his school teacher, the passionate Miss Constance Nixon. Together, they face the war and strive to reassemble their lives. Harry fights at Passchendaele and upon his return, Constance struggles to understand what has happened to her great friend.