The third and final novel in the trilogy, Twenty Thousand Streets Under the Sky, is the story of Ella Dawson. She works in the same London pub as Bob the waiter and her story runs in parallel with Bob’s in The Midnight Bell.

Ella is courted by one of the pub’s customers, Mr Ernest Eccles, who takes her to the theatre and the pictures (the same cinema, Madame Tussauds on the Marylebone Road, where she earlier goes with Bob in The Midnight Bell).

She becomes engaged to Mr Eccles, more than 20 years her senior, but is still secretly in love with Bob. A couple of days after Christmas, Ella finds out that, without even telling her, Bob is leaving The Midnight Bell to re-join the Navy. She has written a letter to Mr Eccles to break off their engagement which remains unposted. In a doomed attempt to cheer herself up, she heads to the cinema on her own.