Excerpts of letters sent by the author's grandfather (John Tait) from Britain to his wife at home in Canada during World War II. They had moved from Scotland to Canada in 1919. He sailed for the British Isles in late August 1939, while she remained in Canada. He was a physician and scientist who had suffered a heart attack the year before (in 1938) and was taking a medical leave of absence from his work. But war broke out shortly after he arrived in Scotland and travel home across the Atlantic to Canada grew extremely dangerous. The author's grandparents found themselves unexpectedly separated because of the war for four years. The letters are an account of his experiences in Scotland and Orkney.