It is August 1943, and war has come to rural St. Mary's County. The newly built Patuxent River Naval Air Station is now home to aircraft and ordnance testing, as well as a growing population of workers coming together to defeat a common enemy. It is also home to murder. Frances Parker is a brand-new member of the U.S. Navy WAVES, or Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service, at the base. Along with dozens of other women, she is attempting to navigate her way through life during dangerous and uncertain times. When someone close to Frances is found dead, everyone around her is convinced that it is an accident¿or so they say. Frances is suspicious of so many people seeming to sweep the matter away, but she is threatened by unknown forces when she attempts to uncover who really committed the foul deed. In present day, Diane Alvey lives in a St. Mary's County that has returned to its bucolic roots despite the high-tech work still being conducted at the air station. As a public affairs officer for the U.S. Navy, Diane is creating a History Hall to document the air station's origins and has just uncovered a secret stash of papers and ephemera¿to include Frances Parker's diary. Intrigued by Frances's riveting story, Diane sets about trying to learn why someone may have been murdered during the early days of the naval base's construction¿and who was responsible for it. But there are dark forces who will do anything to prevent Diane from bringing the past to light.