Spring 1944 and Europe is in the grip of war. For Alice Todd, it is the start of her second year as warden of the Land Army hostel in the Devonshire countryside and a time of change as she recovers from her broken marriage, learning to balance her new working lifestyle with her continuing role as a mother to her only son. Her leadership has won her the affection and confidence of the land girls in her charge and, as the seeds of friendship are sewn, she finds herself increasingly caught up in the lives of the women who surround her. ''The Girl at the Farmhouse Gate'' continues the story begun in the much-loved ''Muddy Boots and Silk Stockings''.