This novel is about one young man, of Irish Catholic descent, growing up in San Francisco of emigrant Irish parents and entering WWII shortly after the bombing of Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. During his high school years he works, in his spare time, at the Fisherman s wharf. He meets and falls in love with the daughter of a fishing boat skipper but one night as they are crossing the street to go to dinner at a small restaurant in the North Beach District a random bullet from China Town finds its mark in the chest of the girl he intends to build his life around and the event leaves the...