Life in Little Cove is safe, familiar and sedate, until events an ocean away draw Sam Eliot and Alison Granger into a tightening spiral of tragedy, failure and betrayal. In April 1917 the United States enters the war in Europe. Sam and Alison are affected by the disintegration of their safe world as Sam enlists, only to experience a personal tragedy soon afterwards that affects his ability to cope as a soldier. Alison, the daughter of a doctor, remains at home in the Maine coastal village and becomes involved in a scandal that shakes her faith in God and humanity.

A fearless chaplain and a Lusitania survivor guide each of them through the difficulties they experience until an influenza epidemic sweeps the globe and nobody emerges undamaged.

Can faith survive in the darkness of a world at war and unspeakable loss? This story answers that question with assurance; there is light even in the filth of the trenches and the degradation of humanity’s darkest vices.