Margaret Mayfield is nearly an old maid at twenty-seven when she marries Captain Andrew Jackson Jefferson Early. He's the most famous man their Missouri town has ever produced: a naval officer & an astronomer
- a genius who according to the local paper has changed the universe. Margaret's mother calls the match a piece of luck". Yet Andrew confounds Margaret's expectations from the moment their train leaves for his naval base in San Francisco & soon she realizes that his devotion to science leaves little room for anything or anyone else. She stands by him through tragedies both personal & those they share with the nation. But as World War II approaches Andrew's obsessions take a darker turn forcing Margaret to reconsider the life she'd so carefully constructed."