Plot summary

London after the Second World War. Juliet Ashton works as a journalist and author in the city and tries to put the traumatic memories of the war behind her. Her publisher Sidney is trying to organize a reading tour for her across the country, and her fiancé Mark wants to take her to his home state of New York. She puts them both off for the time being, not yet knowing what to expect from life. One day she receives an unusual letter, sent by Dawsey Adams, a farmer from the Channel Island of Guernsey, who has acquired an antiquarian book that previously belonged to Juliet. A lively correspondence ensues, during the course of which Juliet learns of the existence of the "Guernsey Friends of Poetry and Potato Peel Casserole": In 1941, Dawsey, Elizabeth McKenna, Eben Ramsey, Amelia Maugery and Isola Pribby were walking on the Nazi-occupied British Channel island of Guernsey under strict curfew and were stopped by armed German soldiers. To avoid arrest, Elizabeth unceremoniously invented the book club with the unusual name to explain the late walk home. Juliet is curious and sets off for Guernsey. There, however, she is not exactly welcomed with open arms; Isola in particular reacts indignantly to her questions - and Elizabeth apparently no longer lives on the island. Little by little, Juliet learns a secret that the members of the club are afraid to reveal. However, her stay in Guernsey and especially her encounter with Dawsey will change her life forever.