Central California in late 1941 was quiet and slow-paced, tranquil and dream-like. It was in this haven that Nina and Gordon had met as second graders and grew into fast friends. Their families lived on the same side of town just outside the city limits, hers on her grandfather’s dairy, his on his parent’s peach and almond farm. The world beyond was in turmoil and the drums of world conflict were pounding a beat in Europe that shook our national shores.

On Sunday morning, December 7, 1941, the Imperial Navy of the nation of Japan launched a sneak attack on the U.S. naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. The loss of American servicemen was extensive and at the end of the day the bulk of the nation’s navy lay at the bottom of the waters of Pearl Harbor Bay.

What follows is the tale of two families, both American, but each with very different story lines. Nina’s father enlists in the Army Air Corps and after training ships out to England, there to serve with the American Air Force taking the war over France and Germany. The life of loved ones who wait and serve on the home front is played out as Nina and her family deal with an absent father serving his country.

Gordon’s family is subjected to the embarrassment and humiliation of being identified as “enemy aliens” and of being forcibly evacuated from their home and interned behind barbed wire in a concentration camp in southeastern Colorado for the duration of the war.

Both families struggle with circumstances over which they have little or no control, and each makes do under the protective arms of their mothers. The world outside has gone completely mad, but inside the safety of a cocoon held tight by their mothers, Nina and Gordon find some semblance of a normal childhood. Though separated by space and governmental decisions they stay in touch sharing written words as they seek to understand their own world and each other’s.

This is a story of two friends, one white, one of Japanese descent, learning to deal with race and the power of fear, and how through their mutual support learn the meaning of friendship and the value of family.