His family imprisoned on a visit to Japan, Mark Ishihara is ordered to the family fish processing plant across the bay from America's only military base in Alaska's Aleutian Islands. With the planned bombing of Pearl Harbor only months away, his job is to spy for Japan, as they prepare to seize American territory.

Mark's blood brother, U.S. Army pilot Chad Gritt is sent to the same island as part of a secret American intelligence group. The two men are forever tied by a terrible accident that killed each of their brothers. Their childhood trauma makes Chad a recluse and Mark the life of the party, each struggling to connect with the women they care about. The two reunite only miles from the accident site, each spying for the other side.

As the war breaks out, Mark's Japanese face is as welcome in Dutch Harbor as a rattlesnake at a party; but if he leaves, his parents die. Simultaneously, the American government begins rounding up its Japanese American citizens, worried that some are spies. Some like Mark are. But after finally disclosing his dilemma to his blood brother, the question is, for which side?

Personal and nationalistic loyalties tear at relationships as war slams into the North Pacific.