During war, the enemy is normally very easy to identify. But sometimes the war must be fought against an invisible enemy. The Derbyshire village of Ashopton was very pleased to see their favourite son, Owen Rawlings, return in February 1919 from the First World War. But if they had known he was bringing Spanish Flu with him, and that 26 people would die as a result, they would have been far less willing to have him.
The first instalment of the Ashopton Saga follows the lives and fortunes of two families in the village as they struggle with the disruption caused by their returning men in the midst of the tragedy of a global pandemic waging war in their homes.