Later, Mab learns that Beth decrypted a message identifying Coventry as target and failed to warn them. Mab blames Osla for letting go of Lucy during the raid. In November 1942, Mab, Francis, Lucy, and Osla take a holiday in Coventry, where Lucy and Francis are killed in an air raid. Under mounting pressure to fight from civilians who know nothing of his secret codebreaking, Harry enlists despite Beth’s objections. They begin an affair once Harry’s wife, Sheila, explains that she and Harry share an open marriage. Beth develops feelings for Harry Zarb, a codebreaker at BP.

Mab falls in love with and marries Francis Gray, a war poet, whom she learns to trust despite lingering trauma from an earlier, abusive relationship that resulted in a daughter, Lucy. When she is forced to cut off communication for security reasons, he leaves her for Princess Elizabeth. Mab, Osla, and Beth each pursue romantic relationships. Eventually, Beth breaks with her family, and she, Mab, and Osla move out. She forms a strong friendship with Dilly Knox, her mentor at BP. Beth, who has a strong mathematical mind, plays a key role in several codebreaking projects. Finch dominates her adult daughter, Beth, Mab and Osla help Beth become more social and help her get a position at BP. Mab and Osla board at the home of the local Finch family. Osla fills a secretarial position, though she later requests and receives a translation assignment, while Mab helps run codebreaking machines. On her way there, she meets Mab Churt, an ambitious woman from a low-class background, also assigned to BP. After a short stint at a factory, she transfers to a top-secret codebreaking facility housed at Bletchley Park (BP). As World War II begins, debutante Osla Kendall seeks to contribute to the war effort. The plot develops along two alternating timelines.

The rose code by kate quinn