As World War II ravages Europe and begins to sweep across the Pacific, a young woman finds freedom and responsibility by immersing herself in the war effort.
Maggie Fitzgerald's big break comes at the Western Union office in Washington, DC. With able-bodied men in short supply, she is entrusted with important tasks previously considered "man's work." Living in a boardinghouse for women and volunteering at the USO, she revels in opportunities that were unavailable in her small Massachusetts hometown.
At the same time, a young man from Louisiana joins the army. Second Lieutenant Terry Lyons was raised in a strict, fundamentalist home with an absent father and an emotionally unstable mother. He, like Maggie, sees his new career as a ticket to freedom.
When the two meet by chance on a train headed for Washington, DC, sparks fly, and they begin to imagine a future together. Then Terry is shipped to the Pacific with the Army Corps of Engineers, and their worries are fueled by agonizingly long waits between letters. Even after the battles cease, they face challenges in occupied Japan that test their faith and love.
Ellen Gibson-Adler's moving portrait of life on the home front captures the importance of living in the present.