Growing up in a slate-quarrying town in North Wales in the late 1940s-early 1950s, Helen Owen is continually caught between conflicting values and interests. At school, Mrs Edwards encourages her to write poetry, whilst Miss Hughes berates her for her poor maths. In Sunday School she learns of a God which wants to forgive her and punish her at the same time. She finds Eleanor Parry disgusting, but still wants to know what she and Billy got up to behind Dwyryd Terrace. And for all their goodness, even her loving parents have their secrets.Affectionate, humorous and perceptive, Return Ticket is a story of reluctant but inevitable transition.