Junie, Allie and Iggy are three teenagers growing up on Cape Cod in East Bay, Massachusetts. The year is 1942 and America is at war. The seaside town's changes from its peacetime tranquility and anxiety starts to build. Men go off to join the the fight and East Bay casualties begin to mount. Romances sprout within that atmosphere of war when love is a hurried venture before a rapid departure of East Bay men into harms way. Some women 'sit under the apple tree' (as the song tells) and they wait for their johnies to come marching home... some can't wait. For lack of manpower the Coast Guard recruits the three boys to perform beach patrols along a section of Cape Cod shoreline...they are not far from the German U-boats wreaking havoc on Allied ships out in the Atlantic....one of those U-boats is U-432. Kapitanleutenant Karl Heineke is in command of U-432. He is not enthralled with the Nazi regime, but loyal to his leader, Admiral Donitz. Heineke's intent is to keep his crew unscathed throughout the war. He attempts to keep crew morale high while depth charges drop near-by and bombs rain down on their families in German cities. Heineke performs well during the admirals Operation Drumbeat against Allied shipping along the East Coast of America. He is rewarded with an Iron Cross bestowed by Hitler during a tense moment by both. On leave in occupied Paris he's reunited with his first love, Marie Paul. The reunion goes well until the Gestapo interrupts it. A mission for Heineke and U-432 is to launch two saboteurs ashore near East Bay. One of the three boys on a night beach patrol stumbles in on this covert operation. When he confronts the saboteurs he's threatened with death.