New York City, the capital of the free world, is dark, its lights turned offas enemy submarines lurk offshore, as close as Coney Island. Three men -a gunner from a B-17 bomber who¿s a national hero, a magazine editoruprooted from civilian life and attached to the Allied High Command, and theviolence-stalked captain of a Royal Merchant Navy freighter - find theirdestinies linked with three volunteer hostesses from New York¹s famous StageDoor Canteen. Genevieve Rose is a beautiful Broadway star in anexperimental Rodgers and Hammerstein musical that seems headed for disaster.Elise Ginsberg is an indomitable young refugee from Hitler¹s terror. AndBernadine Flaherty is the ambitious, talented teenage dancer from Brooklynhoping for her big show business break. Against Manhattan¹s wartime glamor, GIs fresh from combat in North Africaand the Pacific find themselves dancing with the likes of the Stage DoorCanteen¹s Katherine Hepburn and Ava Gardner. Food, whiskey and clothes arerationed, and spies are where one least expects to find them. Life is livedfor the moment, love is passionate and often random, and those who can, snatch at a chance for happiness. For beyond the frenetic blackout, theentire world is fighting and dying.