This second book in the Fort Lewis Series follows some of the violent battles of World War II in which the Leroux family and their circle of friends were involved. Mark and Arlo are called to duty early in the war. Mark is severely wounded leading his regiment in an amphibious assault against a heavily defended Japanese island. Mark and Bright Cloud's daughter, Bright Star, becomes a Navy nurse, and their son is graduating early from West Point to command a platoon of infantry in the European Campaign. The beautiful courtship between Arlo and Michelle is shattered. She was in the Philippine Islands at the same time the Japanese captured the islands. Arlo brilliantly leads his Marine division against the Japanese islands on the way to the Philippines, agonizing over the fate of his beloved. The horrors of combat and the trauma of loss leads the extended family back to the silent tranquility of Fort Lewis to heal troubled souls.