This novel tells the story of four women during World War II, who first meet in a typing class, aspiring to greater economic security than their working-class families. Eventually becoming housemates, the four have quite different experiences. Wanda, the daughter of a Japanese-American family, finds herself brutally interned in a camp in the Arizona desert. Ann, the daughter of Jewish immigrants, leaves for London to work with refugee children. Moira gives up her acting ambitions for war work. And Teddy, also involved in the war effort, discovers she is a lesbian.