Edith Endsley joined the Army Nurse Corps in 1943 during World War II at the age of twenty-one and was assigned to the navy hospital ship USS Mercy. In the course of duty in the Pacific Theater of Operations she, two other nurses, and a Catholic priest were sent ashore on a small Japanese island to tend to American and Japanese wounded at the request of a high-ranking Japanese officer. This proved to be a ruse. The priest was killed and the three nurses were told to go to a geisha house where they were stripped, drugged, and massaged by three geishas. When Edith woke up she had reason to believe that she had been raped but there was no evidence. Upon discharge from the service Edie returned home to small-town Missouri with a severe case of androphobia, an intense fear of men.

Aboard ship Edith met a young ensign who promised to look her up after the war. He did but Edith decided to become a nun and a friendship between Ensign Danny and Elizabeth, Edith's younger sister, turned romantic and when Edith decided to leave the convent Danny and Elizabeth are in love.