Beyond That, the Sea follows the story of two families—the Gregorys in Boston and the Thompsons in England—connected by Bea, who is sent to live with the Gregorys by her parents during World War II. Although the story presents the perspectives of eight different characters, the thread that connects them all within the story is Bea. Her life and experiences are particularly unique, living two different lives on different sides of the ocean that form crucial parts of her identity.

However, Bea’s experiences aren’t unique to the time period itself; she’s one of many English children who experienced relocation away from home during the war. This relocation was a British government initiative, codenamed Operation Pied Piper, under which a large population of the country’s children was evacuated upon the outbreak of the war (Zimmerman, Dwight. “Operation Pied Piper: The Evacuation of English Children During World War II.” Defense Media Network). Urban centers were identified as being particularly at risk, and evacuees were shipped off either to rural areas in Britain or overseas to places like Canada, the US, South Africa, Australia, and New Zealand. The evacuees weren’t only school-aged children, however; they included expectant mothers and mothers with babies or preschool-aged children, who traveled together (Zimmerman).