“What are you trying to say?”

“Only that... I’m finding it difficult... not to fall in love with you, that’s all.”

Pank sat, biting her lip, not quite knowing how to respond to the thrilling words. The very words she had longed to hear. But though they were the right words, and gently spoken, they were strangely final words. Words wrapped in a tone that sounded altogether hopeless.

In the spring of 1944, World War II escalated as Hitler bombarded Europe. But to the inhabitants of Kilkenny Cove, Tennessee, the war seemed far away. This...