Semi-autobiographical, Valerie Baxter writes of a religious woman who marries an atheist in the action-packed romance novel My Precious Sunbeam. Alice was born during World War II in Gravesend, Kent, England, where she is raised, nurtured, and deeply loved by her maternal grandparents. Brought up in the Salvation Army faith, her dream is to become an officer with her own corps and to do missionary work overseas. After a broken relationship with Carl, who Alice hoped to marry and work side by side as officers, she moves to London and becomes a commissioned officer. There she unexpectedly meets Carl again and they marry. Eventually the couple journey to the Sudan as missionaries. But Carl leaves Alice when he falls for another woman, even though Alice is pregnant with their first child. Alice’s faith has been sorely tested, turning her away from religion. It takes a reunion with James, a young doctor who worked with her at the medical mission in Sudan to bring Christianity back into her life. Although James is an atheist, his love for Alice draws him into missionary work, this time in Zambia, where the now married couple live.