Two high school friends take very different paths during WWII. The traditional Angie falls in love -- forever -- with a sailor, whose life is suddenly ended by a German torpedo, while her friend Dorothy attempts something unheard of in the forties: going to law school. Newfoundland during the wartime forties was hardly Rosie the Riveter Country. So, when Angie loses her sailor lover and marries the boy next door -- who turns out to be a sexual sadist -- she fears there is no way out. She turns to her friend Dorothy, a woman lawyer at a time when such aspirations seemed impossible. But it's what happens after that, in a world where feminism did not exist, that's surprising -- and unsettling. This novel is a tale of loss, female friendship, and of a time long past, when being a woman had few advantages, and many disadvantages. Filled with tragedy, magic realism, and humour, this novel paints a picture of women's lives in the forties, and of the prevailing and enduring power of female friendship.