Lily is looking forward to spending another summer at her family’s vacation home with her grandmother on the shore in Rockaway, New York, when her father drops the news that he must go to Europe with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers during World War II. Angry at her widower father for leaving, Lily refuses to say goodbye to him and is certain that this summer will be lonely. Then she meets Albert, a Hungarian refugee who lost most of his family to the war and had to leave his sickly sister behind in Europe. The two friends rely on each other to overcome their feelings of guilt in this story of how war affects the children at home.
