Alta, a bright and hard-working young woman, loves the fun and variety of college life, but she misses her family and home in Zion National Park. When America joins the war in far-off Germany and Japan, not much changes in her life besides adapting to ration cards and shortages in bobby pins and nylons, as well as increasing proposals of marriage from men in uniform. When she meets Hal on a blind date, she finds herself falling for him, even though she knows she might never see him again.

Hal, a confident and idealistic young man, arrives at college as a 20-year-old fresh from the sugar beet field and sporting his private pilot’s license. He can’t wait to have some fun on campus, although he’s mostly eager to get to flight training and become a fighter pilot in the war. When he meets Alta, he knows she’s special, but he worries about becoming too attached when he might never see her again. Before they know it, Alta and Hal are caught up in the war and its aftermath that are changing the whole world. Will Alta's love be enough to answer the questions in his heart and put them to rest forever? And will the love Hal begins to feel for the German people give him reason enough to become a Candy Bomber to a city torn apart with hate and fear, and to realize that Alta might hold the answers he’s looking for after all?