The China Lake missile range - created during the Second World War and shrouded in secrecy - is located in a huge stretch of the Mojave Desert, about the size of the state of Delaware. Despite its mystery, its employees are regular working people, with domestic routines and everyday dilemmas, and four of them were Karen Piper's parents, her sister, and when she needed summer jobs - herself. Piper's memoir is also a search for the truth of the past and what really brought her parents to China Lake with two young daughters.