Beginning in December of 1941, the San Francisco Bay area was fully involved in the changes brought about by World War II. Although these are not battle stories, they are war stories, set on the home front during those days after Pearl Harbor when life changed for soldier and civilian alike. The first story, "San Francisco Dance" is set at the Presidio of San Francisco, a venerable U.S. Army installation. Here a girl named China and her friends face the changes of war as they must move beyond their sheltered lives on the army post. There is an innocence and a tragedy to those days which is sometimes overlooked in the memories of that time. The second story, "Berkeley Boarding" takes place on the University of California campus at Berkeley, just across the bay from San Francisco.

At one of the university boarding houses, the housemother discovers that she is experiencing much the same reaction to the war as her young boarders. These young, and not so young, women come of age in a time when many ofthe men are headed for war.