It is November 1944. Eighteen-year-old June Walker leaves behind her family and their rural life. She and hundreds of other young women head to Oak Ridge, Tennessee, which does not even exist on any map. They have been hired to monitor huge machines, the purpose of which is also a mystery. The women are taught how to operate and adjust the various dials, levers and knobs to keep the numbers within certain ranges. Yet they are totally ignorant of the nature and true objective of the mysterious machines that they are in charge of six days a week. The work itself, though critical, is rather boring.

The pay is good, and there is a ready supply of soldiers and civilian employees to occupy the young women during their free time. Oak Ridge operates 24 hours a day because of its top-secret mission. Workers are warned not to speak to anyone about what they see, hear or experience at Oak Ridge. Because no one can really be trusted, this makes conversation even among co-workers a bit tricky. It is difficult to weigh every word that one speaks throughout the course of a day.

"[I]n this day of ubiquitous and ever-invasive communications, it would be difficult to understand how the Manhattan Project actually pulled off its humongous top-secret goal without the thorough research of author Janet Beard."

Three other characters figure prominently in THE ATOMIC CITY GIRLS. June’s roommate, Cici, has one goal in mind --- to cast off her family’s poverty as sharecroppers and marry a wealthy young man. Joe Brewer, a colored construction worker (remember, readers, this book is set in 1944 in the South, and segregation is still a very unpleasant reality), has left his family in Alabama to come to Oak Ridge where he can make decent money. The last important character is a brilliant scientist, Sam Cantor, who heads the department where June works.

Sam is a rather dour figure. Negative and moody, he attempts to medicate his worries with alcohol but is not successful in forgetting the ultimate goal of the work being done, because he knows the secret of Oak Ridge. It is part of the Manhattan Project. Highly critical material created at Oak Ridge is sent to a top-secret facility across the country, where it is being used to create the atomic bomb. Sam, as a physicist, knows too well the awful truth about the utter devastation that will be unleashed if the Manhattan Project succeeds. No wonder he is depressed and trying to drink himself into oblivion! June and Sam carry on an intimate relationship, and bit by bit Sam reveals to June the true mission of Oak Ridge, putting both of them in danger for sharing the protected information.

Though history long ago informed us of the drastic results of the Manhattan Project, it is interesting to read what life was like for the residents and workers at Oak Ridge. And in this day of ubiquitous and ever-invasive communications, it would be difficult to understand how the Manhattan Project actually pulled off its humongous top-secret goal without the thorough research of author Janet Beard.