Two families in Seattle, one American and the other Japanese-American, face the upcoming World War II. Both families have sons who are affected by the war and by the prejudice that roiled the Seattle community and sent one family to an internment camp. As they work together to chase down a persistent Japanese spy, they face danger and death, but a wound leads one of them to find love, even in the clamor of war. The author was raised on Beacon Hill in Seattle, and saw the barrage balloon on the golf course and the camouflaged Boeing plant. He saw the gold stars placed in many windows and his classmates being hauled off to internment camps.