Artie is ten years old at the time of Pearl Harbor. He throws himself into the Home Front's War Effort while his brother joins the Marines and goes off to the South Pacific. Artie watches not only the war but the love affair of his hero brother and "the girl he left behind." Artie's own innocence, like that of a whole nation, is finally lost when he tries to understand and actively cope with the realities of love and death, betrayal and trust, as they are played out in the lives of those nearest and dearest to him.