Young Michael Morpurgo always loved the small painting of a boat hanging on Aunty Iris's wall. But all she would ever say about it was that her beloved Alfie had painted it and given it to her years ago-before he'd left for France during World War II and had never come back. Michael decides to try and find out what happened to Alfie himself. He embarks on a journey that takes him to the marshes of an English coastal village and across the Channel into France, learning a profound lesson along the way about service and the surprising endurance of memory.