He makes a choice. She takes a vow. In 1941, debates about duty to conscience and obligation to country simmer in the taverns of working-class Philadelphia and on the pages of Dorothy Day's The Daily Worker. CCC veteran and aspiring artist Edward Hohlfeld complies with the draft with a troubled heart. But a principled stance on the bootcamp firing range turns his promising life into a nightmare when it lands him in a barbaric mental asylum with no ticket out. His baffling fall from grace alienates him from family and sets his young devoted sister Mary on a decades-long mission to unravel the cryptic circumstances and salvage his honor. While Ed struggles for justice a world away, Mary discovers the wages of family secrecy and the nation's shame.
