In 1917, sixteen-year-old Calla LaRocca is bound and determined to go to a new secretarial college for women. Her immigrant father is appalled at her interest in pursuing a career, but Calla is eager to learn what she needs to fill a position vacated by a man doing his duty to fight in the war.

While visiting her grandmother in Tennessee, Calla is emotionally blindsided by David Sloan, a man whose ethnic background is unacceptable to her family. David surreptitiously teaches Calla many things, including how to maneuver a 1914 Mogul tractor. He goes off to serve in the war and is wounded in...