Mattie has been saving her money for nursing school to escape her abusive father and mentally unstable mother. There are the rare good moments, such as  those spent with her sister and youngest brother, and her boss at the dime store seems to reciprocate Mattie’s hidden feelings for him. But it’s the late 1930s, and Mattie knows that nice guys don’t marry “damaged goods.”

 

Each time her life seems to be edging toward normalcy, something  happens. When the United States enters the war, Mattie fulfills her lifetime ambition of becoming a nurse but she'd never imagined being a nurse in wartime serving in various countries in such harsh conditions.  

 

Romance enters Mattie's life twice and war's end brings hard decisions.