''The Maids of La Rochelle'' introduces the sisters Elizabeth and Anne Temple, who are in their twenties, and their teenage half-sister Janie. In their youth they were farmed out in various different places, including living for some years in France. Now their father has died, and although they seem barely to have seen him when growing up, they’re all grieving. They’re also rather worried about money, but circumstances work in their favour, and they move to a cottage in Guernsey. The book relates their attempts to make friends, their clashes with the ‘white witch’ who was still an important personage on the island in the 1920s, and the very low-key romances that develop when two young men come into Elizabeth and Anne’s lives.