It is 1939 when this story opens. Ellen Ramsden has to face a difficult future, her husband who was an invalid has just died, his ill health largely due to his First World War service. Now another war is coming and she knows her sons Joe and Bill will be drawn into the fight. They are already anticipating it with some excitement. Bill joins up in the Royal Air Force, but she manages to keep Joe at home in a reserved occupation in the Dockyard until after a broken romance he enlists in the army. Millicent, meanwhile, who is only sixteen takes up a career in the local theatre. What happens to these four people is the basis of the story, their lives and loves. The Gossamer Thread is what holds them, strong but invisible and brings those who are left back together again before the story ends.