World War l is dragging on. Emily Bryce is extremely bored and restless, and would like to do something useful to assist the war effort. Her only sibling died in the war, and now her parents --- especially her mother --- keep a tight rein on her, wanting her to marry a well-to-do bachelor, preferably one with a title. Emily wants her freedom, which she will get soon enough when she turns 21, though it will come at great cost to her.

The estate next to the Bryce home has been converted into a military convalescent home where Emily first meets Robbie, a cheeky Australian pilot whom her mother forbids her to see.

"The main themes...are how drastically war affects the home front, perseverance and making the best of a horrible situation, the importance of friendship, and the resilience of the human spirit."

When Emily turns 21, she volunteers for service as a “land girl,” an enlisted member of the Women’s Land Army. With all able-bodied men off at war, there is no one to harvest and plant crops to feed the general population, whose diet has been severely limited by rationing and shortages.

Despite her sheltered upbringing, Emily and the other trainees --- all of whom come from very modest circumstances --- form friendships as they learn to milk cows, dig potatoes, and plant and harvest crops. Emily and two other land girls are assigned to a huge estate, and are tasked with returning the lawns and flower beds to their former glory.

Emily continues seeing Robbie whenever possible. When his wounds are healed, he returns to duty, learning to fly a new type of aircraft. During a battle, the badly damaged plane he is flying approaches the populated village, so he crashes it into an empty field. Emily is grief-stricken. She soon realizes she is pregnant with extremely limited options.

While living at the neglected, humble cottage on the estate grounds, Emily discovers an old journal belonging to a school mistress named Susan. Entries begin in 1858. It describes a leather-bound book belonging to an herbalist; those passages are from 1684.

Here THE VICTORY GARDEN turns into a mystery, and the plot picks up tempo. Emily is fascinated by the old herbal remedies. She harvests a few herbs from the overgrown herbal garden and has some success preparing herbal remedies following the vague recipes in the leather book. In fact, she is able to heal the village’s many influenza patients. But when she prepares an herbal remedy for the elderly Lady Charlton whose heart is failing, the woman sips the potion and is soon near death. It will be left to the reader to find out what happens.

The main themes of Rhys Bowen’s latest novel are how drastically war affects the home front, perseverance and making the best of a horrible situation, the importance of friendship, and the resilience of the human spirit.