This richly complex novel is by far Piercy's best as she follows
the lives of ten people during World War II. It's not the war most
novelists have written about.  

The chapters alternately tell the stories of people behind the
scenes: a female pilot; a painter who gets caught up in the
Resistance; a factory worker at home; a Jewish Marine fighting both
the Japanese and anti-Semitism; a man dodging U-boats while running
supplies; a romance writer striving to become a serious journalist;
a cryptographer in Washington; a young privileged American who
finds herself in the intelligence service in London; a spoiled
Parisian who scorns her Jewish background until war changes her
view of her heritage; and, the Parisian's younger sister who is
sent to America for safety.   

Many of their stories intertwine eventually, some tangentially,
some profoundly.