Charlie Groth has just been drafted into the US Army's 7th Infantry as a litter bearer in October 1942 when he boards a ship bound for remote parts of Alaska. Japanese forces have invaded mere months after their deadly attack on Pearl Harbor and are occupying two of the Aleutian islands. Yet Charlie and his fellow soldiers have been assured it's bound to be an easy fight and a quick victory. The boys will be home with their families for the holidays.

It will be three years before Charlie sees his family again.

Paul Nobuo Tatsuguchi is a physician in the Imperial Japanese Armed Forces with a penchant for journaling, a way to distract himself from how much he misses his wife and young daughters. As Charlie and his troops make their way to Attu Island, Paul and his troops construct foxholes, field hospitals, and trenches in preparation for the vicious battle to come.

When the two armies meet amid the fog and freezing rain, neither side is ready for the desperate fight that will become the second bloodiest battle in the Pacific after Iwo Jima. And neither is prepared for the price that patriotism and loyalty will demand.

Following two parallel stories from opposite sides of the conflict and capturing the war through first-person accounts and archival photographs, acclaimed author Candace Fleming brings this history to life with a thrilling, movingly personal, and fast-paced examination of the little-known World War II campaign that unfolded on American soil and wound up playing an essential role in the ultimate defeat of the Japanese Admiralty in the Pacific.