Cirrus@Austlit

'Captain Inglis Kyle, invalided out of the A.I.F., resumes his old position as morning announcer at 3PQ, Melbourne. He finds it increasingly difficult to be brisk and bright over the air, as his private life is rendered almost intolerable by anxiety for his sister Nina, with whom he now lives. Nina's husband, Carne Williams, is missing in Malaya, and worrying over him has brought her almost to the verge of a breakdown. On a visit to Richard Abbot, a former brother officer who is still in the Army, he meets Sylvia, Richard's seventeen-year-old sister, who he casually remarks, appears to possess a certain amount of dramatic talent. The Abbot household is temporarily broken up. Richard rejoins his unit, while Mrs. Abbot is forced to take her husband to New South Wales to recuperate after a sudden illness. Sylvia is left in charge of her two younger brothers Tam and Bennie, and her sister Bernice. As the Abbots are recent arrivals from Sydney, they know few people in Melbourne, but the elderly and ineffective Austin Lalie agrees to live with the children and keep an eye on things.' (Publisher's abstract)