Wellington, 1942. Lorna's older brothers are fighting overseas, and as the war in the Pacific rages on, 20,000 American troops are sent to keep New Zealand safe. Few are happy about it - the locals want their own boys back, and the Americans find their post at the end of the world strange and hostile. They do enjoy meeting the Kiwi girls, though, and when one of Lorna's friends drags her along on a double date, she befriends Stan, a Marine from Chicago. Stan is handsome and kind, the golden boy of his family. While he is posted overseas, his unruly younger brother Alfie joins the Marines and ends up in Wellington too. Lorna struggles to connect with Alfie like she did with Stan: Alfie infuriates her. Yet when he leaves to fight, she thinks of him often - which feels like a betrayal of both Stan and her brothers...