Theirs was a vision of peace. The world had outgrown war. Or so they thought.

Belgium lies in ruins. France is about to fall. England is ablaze from nightly bombings. Can America's late entry into the Great War make a difference? Can the world truly be made safe for democracy?

Like the rest of the nation, the lives of the Morgan family are uprooted by the whirlpool of strife on the European continent, none more violently than Emily Morgan and her daughter, Katy, who are aboard the luxury liner Lusitania when it is torpedoed by a German U-boat off the coast of Ireland. Eventually, both Katy and her younger brother, Johnny, long the family black sheep, become participants in the war itself, Katy as a nurse, Johnny as an aviator with a pursuit squadron.

Through a series of ill-fated events, rumor, and broken communications, the fate of the Morgans grows darker still when Katy and Johnny both find themselves caught behind German lines. Will Katy suffer the same martyr's death as the British nurse she so admired and tried to emulate? Can Johnny find the key to ending the war within himself and find that elusive personal peace or will his competitiveness destroy not only him but his sister as well?