Ellen is now thirteen, living in an upstairs flat with her parents in Morpeth, England. In the aftermath of World War II, many of her neighbours mistrust the German prisoners of war who still live among them, and resent the POWs for taking scarce jobs away.

In Keeping Secrets, Ellen helped a German POW escape. Now she worries that he may never have gotten away, and is still in Morpeth. What if her neighbours find out what she did?

Jean Booker explores the complex and often turbulent process of rebuilding in the aftermath of war in this realistic tale based on her own experience growing up in England during and after WWII.