What was it like to experience World War II in small-town America? Here is the story of the war as it unfolded in one small town, New Castle, Indiana. We see through the eyes of the residents of Plum Street as families search for information about the progress of the war and the fate of loved ones in the censored accounts in local newspapers. We overhear everyday conversation up and down the street, in which the dominant subject is the news from overseas. The war finds its way into letters and diaries, which also record private fears and hopes, rumours and town gossip, and the wonderfully mundane events of everyday life. This engrossing book captures the war on the home front as lived by some average Americans caught up in faraway events that will come to shape their lives.