Gadsden, Alabama, 1943. World War II rages on three continents, far from the small Southern community of Gadsden. Two blue stars hang in the window of the Winstead residence, stark reminders of the two Winstead sons fighting in this terrible conflict. For teenager John Winstead, the changes wrought by war affect not only him, but his family, his neighbors, and his town. During the summer of 1943, seduction takes center stage in John's world. He begins a torrid affair with Sylvia Barnes, a beautiful, lonely woman married to an abusive alcoholic. When the affair is discovered, Sylvia flees Gadsden in mortification, leaving John devastated.
The war offers a chance to escape his misery, and John leaves high school to join the Army Air Corps and serve in the Pacific on a B-29 crew. Despite the solidarity and courage of his men, Sylvia is never far from his thoughts, and when John's plane is shot down into the ocean, her face is the one he clings to during his stay in the hospital as he wavers between delirium and sanity.
Ailing in spirit and body, John returns to Gadsden, still a teenager, but matured to manhood by the raw brutality of war and loss. For him, the war is over. But the fight for the love of his life has just begun ...