Buckinghamshire, 1942: in a gothic villa deep in woods near Bletchley Park, artist Vivienne Thayer paints 'Black' propaganda to demoralise the enemy. Despite government restrictions, she enjoys her work - and finds time for a lover as well as her indulgent husband - but where do acts of subterfuge end?

Meanwhile, in London, three women painters - Laura Knight, Faith Farr and Cecily Browne - record wartime life. Instructed by the men in power, even Churchill himself, they must conjure up the bulldog spirit.

But as the war's course turns and the lives of these artists collide, each must ask herself what truths and what lies they are prepared to tell, even to those closest to them.