"It's 1914, and World War I is ceaselessly churning through thousands of young men on both sides of the fight. The violence of the front feels far away to Henry Gaunt, Sidney Ellwood and the rest of their classmates, all of whom are safely ensconced in their idyllic boarding school in the English countryside. They receive weekly dispatches from The Preshutian, their school newspaper, informing them of older classmates killed or wounded in action....

A World War II Marine sergeant and a Roman Catholic nun are both marooned together on a South Pacific island, hemmed in by surrounding Japanese troops. The sergeant does his best to make the nun's ordeal less painful, but is torn by his growing love for her. The nun is equally fond of the sergeant, but refuses to renounce her vows. Their unrealized ardor mellows into mutual respect as they struggle to survive before help arrives.