Helike is married to a Roman centurion and lives in the military camp at York, far from her original home in the south of France. Aldith is a Saxon blacksmith s daughter whose peaceful childhood is disrupted by the Viking attack on the city. Johanna is a widow mourning her only son, who died fighting for Richard the Third at the Battle of Bosworth, and Pat is a WAAF officer in the Second World War.

Nine women have lived and died in the same street, Micklegate, that runs from the city walls to the river. This book shows us their lives, their everyday activities that are not very different across the centuries and the dramatic events that change them forever.

Each woman has her own story, a thread that adds to the tapestry of being a woman, then and now.