Since the attack on Pearl Harbor, Gordon Hooper and his buddy Jack Armitage have done "work of national importance" in Oregon as conscientious objectors: volunteering as smokejumpers, and parachuting into and extinguishing raging wildfires. But the number of winter blazes they're called to in early 1945 seems suspiciously high, and when an accident leaves Jack badly injured, Gordon realizes the facts don't add up. A member of the Women's Army Corps, Dorie Armitage has long been ashamed of her brother's pacifism, but she's shocked by news of his accident. Determined to find out why he was harmed, she arrives at the national forest under the guise of conducting an army report . and finds herself forced to work with Gordon. He believes it's wrong to lie; she's willing to do whatever it takes for justice to be done. As they search for clues, Gordon and Dorie must wrestle with their convictions about war and peace and decide what to do with the troubling secrets they discover.