Rose had wanted to do her bit for the war effort, help the boys who were risking their lives fighting the Germans and the Japanese, and maybe see a little of the world along the way. But there was no way she could have predicted the horrors she would encounter and the difficult choices she would have to make.

Rose Krantz has made it through nursing school and much to everyone's dismay, most notably her boyfriend, Malcolm, she joins the Army Nurse Corps. Her first assignment is at Camp Crowder, Missouri. There she meets three nurses who see her through three years in a tent evacuation hospital, four foreign countries, and more human misery than they could have imagined. What they encounter shakes even Rose's resolve to see it through. These women, and a corpsman by the name of Alfred, form bonds that will last a lifetime.
When the war in Europe is finally over, Malcolm surprises Rose with a romantic trip to Salzburg, Austria, where Rose finally realizes what is truly important in her life only days before she was to lose it.

A Burnished Rose entertains, inspires, and reminds us what life was like for women of that era, and for the nurses who, right along with the men, made significant sacrifices for their country.