This is a romantic novel involving the love story of a US naval officer, the commander of a Navy destroyer, and a beautiful Dutch girl, the daughter of a Dutch attache in Manila. It takes place during the initial months of the Second World War in the Far East, and the final demise of the US Asiatic Fleet. It begins in the Philippines and continues in the Dutch East Indies (now, Indonesia). The story alternates between the love affair and the officer's naval duties during the Japanese invasion and conquest of the Philippines and the Dutch East Indies. Their love affair is complicated by the ongoing war and the efforts of the girl's parents to stop it. Instead, the parents want their daughter to marry a close family friend. The tempo is dictated by the slow but steady advance of the Japanese military through the Philippines and the Indonesian islands, and the struggle of the lovers to continue their romance despite all the difficulties."