Madeline Beck's world is turned upside down when her father is sent to fight in World War II. As she hears about the ensuing battles abroad, she fears that she will lose her father forever. Then one day the war hits directly home when a German U-boat comes ashore near her small beach town.

		June 12, 1942 Tonight I got caught. I'm still shaking. I don't understand what happened, reallly. I was prowling down the foggy beach...I heard voices and saw the silhouettes of two men near the dunes. I started to run back down the beach, but one of the men called out and shined a flashlight on me, and I froze like a rabbit. The man told me to halt and he asked who I was and where I lived. I told him my full name and address. He ordered me to turn around. I did and he walked up to me in the dark and shined the flashlight right in my eyes and when I started to turn away, he said, "Look straight into the light, Madeline Beck." And I looked into the light, and I was blinded, and he said, "We're the Coast Guard. You did not see us here. You saw nothing."