Hidden beneath the wall, a journal.With the answers to everything.First a mystery guest shows up at the funeral for Jesse Parker's mother, Julianne. Then a hidden box reveals papers that claim Jesse's brothers were adopted. All it takes is one more surprise discovery for the real truth of Julianne's life to be brought to light.Hidden from Julianne's children is a journal containing the deeply personal story of her time as a combat war journalist in Vietnam. Mixed among her tale of the bombardment of war and harsh reality of being the only female amongst Camp Dakota's troop of Marines, is the history of Julianne's relationship with Sergeant Mack Roberts, the son of a WWII sailor and Japanese woman. Both Mack and Julianne are outsiders in a sense—bound together by love, and torn apart by war. Yet the secrets that follow in the pages of his mother's journal show far more than an average love story as Jesse learns how twisted fates can become, and how a selfless attempt to give him and his siblings the most normal lives possible will turn everything they've ever believed about themselves on end.