At Chequers in early April 1941, Mary Churchill is distracted from the cold, gloomy atmosphere by growing attention from Eric Duncannon. After hearing gossip about him, she receives first a sweet letter and then an invitation to dinner, and his telephone call excites her further. At the same time, the wider war turns sharply darker: Germany attacks Yugoslavia and Greece, and the British are forced back in Libya. Disturbed by what these reversals will do to her father, Mary goes to church to pray for him, then finds Winston Churchill tired and sorrowful as he warns that worse news is coming.

Churchill’s fears are confirmed during the week. Rommel’s advance threatens British positions in Libya, and Churchill orders that Tobruk be defended at all costs while demanding detailed plans and photographs so he can study the battlefield himself. News from Belgrade, devastated by Operation Retribution, adds to the sense of catastrophe, while Britain’s own civilian death toll from German bombing nears thirty thousand. Churchill also revives invasion precautions for the Easter holiday, warns Parliament that the war has spread in the Balkans, and makes clear that Britain’s future depends heavily on American aid, especially ships and Lend-Lease.

Harriman watches Churchill’s speech and writes to Roosevelt that British morale and Churchill’s hopes are increasingly bound up with the United States. Mary, meanwhile, remains emotionally divided between horror at events in Yugoslavia and anticipation of seeing Eric, who gives her a copy of John Donne. Before leaving on a damage tour with her parents, Mary also learns that her brother-in-law Duncan Sandys has been badly injured in a car accident, adding family worry to the national strain.

Churchill, Clementine, Mary, Harriman, and others travel by special train to Swansea and then toward Bristol. In Swansea, Mary sees terrible destruction but is even more struck by the public’s love for Churchill and their dependence on him, which moves and alarms her. After a disappointing stop to observe experimental weapons tests, the party spends the night outside Bristol just as the city suffers the devastating Good Friday Raid. The next morning, they enter a city still burning, and Churchill tours the wreckage in open cars and on foot, drawing intense, emotional crowds. Mary and Harriman both see how powerfully Churchill restores courage merely by appearing among the bombed civilians.

The visit continues at Bristol University, where Churchill presides over an honorary degree ceremony despite the raid, then gives an impromptu speech praising the fortitude of the city and the spirit of an unconquerable people. As the cheering crowds follow his car back to the station, Churchill is overcome by their faith in him and calls it a grave responsibility. Back at Chequers, grim military discussions resume over Greece, Tobruk, and the Middle East, but Roosevelt sends a decisive cable extending the American naval security zone far into the Atlantic and authorizing patrols that will help Britain’s shipping. Churchill hails the move as a major step toward salvation, Harriman hopes it leads to war with Germany, and the chapter closes with Britain still under renewed military and political strain despite this crucial sign of growing American commitment.