In this hauntingly beautiful love story told in classic form, Ursula, a 16-year-old German refugee, and Russell, an American tank commander, meet in a "city of the dead" in the last days of the Second World War in Europe. At first, Ursula hides herself behind a child's shield;"the way she hunches up her shoulders and smiles shyly from under her brow";but Jack Halley, Russell's friend and confidant, soon sees the incredibly beautiful young woman behind the mask. He assumes the role of Friar Laurence and tries to help the "beloved enemies" reach each other across the war's barriers of evil and guilt.

"This is wrong. Monstrous! If we can show no mercy now, in this hour of victory, here in these ruins reeking with death and destruction!;when all we know of the girl and what happened here cries out for the madness of war to end!;then;what will become of us?"