This short novel is the 'follow-up- to 'The Long Echo', which told of the brief relationship between a boy from a secure working class home in Edinburgh and a younger girl, Anna, from a City slum. The boy, Robbie, was the teller of that story. This is about Anna and the grim background to her life prior to meeting Robbie. It is a tale of how an unfortunate sector of the population lived in poverty just prior to and immediately after World War II. It is also the story of what happened to Anna after their friendship was cut short by events outside their control, never to be resumed.