Fascinating period details provide an authentic backdrop for the diaries of eighth-grader Madeline Beck, as she reveals her unusual experiences living in a Long Island boardinghouse while her father is stationed in the Pacific during wartime America. To help her adjust to her new surroundings and fight her loneliness, she organizes a student group to help with the war effort - and gains new friendships, along with romance. Then Maddie witnesses an event on the beach that leads to her involvement with the FBI in uncovering Nazi agents. The intricacies and concerns of the situation, the anxieties of this uncertain time in history, and the dilemmas of this complex adolescent are woven together in an engaging story of this time in history, and especially of the impact of war on 1940s teens.