After a journalist takes an interest in eighty-five-year-old Jean Warner' s experience as an enemy code interceptor during World War II, Jean reflects upon her past, which was often challenging and painful. Jean relives her experiences during the war when she was in the Women' s Army Corps and did grueling secret work deciphering enemy Morse Code at Two Rock Ranch Station, near Petaluma, California. During this time, she has a challenging friendship with another WAC, pursues a rocky relationship with a soldier, and constantly fears for the lives of her two brothers who are fighting in the war. As difficult as it has been to dwell on her past, Jean eventually realizes that she has acquired insights that have helped her understand herself and strengthened her relationship with her troubled daughter, who has assumed that her mother conducted her life perfectly. The novel takes place in the 1940s and 2006.