In the immediate aftermath of the attack on Pearl Harbor, Captain Victor 'Pug' Henry finds himself in command of a cruiser, the USS Northampton. His son Warren is a naval aviator on the USS Enterprise and son Byron continues his service on a submarine, the USS Swordfish. Pug's wife Rhoda continues her affair with Palmer Kirby and Byron's wife Natalie has a difficult decision to make when a German Foreign Office official suggests that she and her uncle Aaron Jastrow stay in Italy rather than travel to Palestine. Pamela Tudsbury and her father start a world tour where he will report for the BBC from the far reaches of the British Empire. She is quick to let Pug know that they will also be stopping in Hawaii.

It's early 1942 and Pug Henry is still in command of the USS Northampton. Pamela Tudsbury and her father find themselves in Singapore. The local administration, both civil and military, believes the island outpost to be impregnable but a journalist friend convinces them otherwise. Nathalie Henry and her uncle Aaron decided to stay in Italy. They have been hoping to get exit visas allowing them to travel to Switzerland but these have consistently been delayed. What they do not know is that Aaron's onetime student, now a German diplomat in Italy, has been instructed to find a way to place Italian Jews into Nazi hands. Nathalie's friend and onetime fiancé Leslie Slote is now assigned to the US Legation in Bern and he comes into information on the German atrocities taking place in Eastern Europe. Heinrich Himmler, the head of the SS, visits Auschwitz and is given a demonstration of its capabilities.

The Henrys have a family reunion of sorts when Pug and Byron join Warren and Janice to celebrate their wedding anniversary. They are joined by Pamela Tudsbury and her father who managed to leave Singapore before it fell to the Japanese. Byron applies for a transfer to the Atlantic submarine force after he learns that his wife Natalie and her uncle Aaron Jastrow were not evacuated from Italy with other Americans. Pug and Warren soon depart on their respective ships headed for the Battle of Midway. Pug has a relatively minor contribution compared to son Warren who flies several successful sorties. Natalie and her uncle have a plan to escape the clutches of the Germans. Rhoda Henry travels to Los Angeles to see daughter Madeline and son Byron who have just arrived. She also sees Pamela Tudsbury who has something to tell her.

Natalie Henry, baby Louis and her uncle, Aaron Jastrow, put into effect their plan to escape from Italy. Their hope of traveling from the Italian coast directly to Lisbon are dashed however and they soon find themselves going to Elba, then Corsica and finally to Marseilles where they are taken in by a local Jewish family who have been regularly assisting refugees. There, Natalie re-discovers her Jewish heritage. Byron has been posted temporarily to Gibraltar to work with the British and he has been making regular courier runs to the American Consulate in Marseilles. Rhoda Henry returns to Washington but stops in Chicago having decided to end her relationships with Palmer Kirby. She is soon pursued however by Colonel Harrison "Hack" Peters. General Halder tells Adolf Hitler that he has no chance of winning the war on the Eastern Front.

Byron and Nathalie are reunited in Marseilles but the American Consul counsels them not to try and leave France without the proper documentation, so Byron returns to Gibraltar alone. Their plans to meet in Lisbon go awry however when, in November 1942, the Allies invade North Africa. As a result, the Germans occupy Vichy France and the borders are closed. Aaron, Louis and Nathalie travel to Lourdes to await what they hope will be a quick prisoner exchange. Pamela Tudsbury and her father Alistair are in Egypt where he is reporting on the Eighth Army's defeat of Rommel's Afrika Korps. The Russians are putting up stiff resistance on the Eastern Front and Hitler approves a new battle plan. At Auschwitz, the Nazi's complete construction of the gas chambers and the crematoria. Berel Jastrow and Sammy Mutterperl are transferred to a new work gang. In the South Pacific, Pug Henry's ship, Northampton, is severely damaged in an encounter with the Japanese.

Pug Henry returns to Washington where President Roosevelt asks him to take an assignment at the U.S. Embassy in Moscow. There, the U.S. Ambassador is none too pleased with the lack of acknowledgment from the Russians on the benefits of lend-lease but Pug is impressed with the work they are doing. All efforts to get Natalie, Louis and Aaron out of Lourdes fail and they learn that all of the internees are being transferred to Baden Baden in Germany. At Pearl Harbor, Byron reports for duty as Executive Officer on a new submarine, the Moray, commanded by his old friend "Lady" Aster. What he doesn't realize is that his friend is having an affair with his widowed sister-in-law, Janice.

Natalie, Louis and her uncle Aaron Jastrow find themselves in Paris having been transferred there from the prisoner exchange camp in Baden Baden courtesy of Aaron's former student, the German diplomat Werner Beck. He thwarts their attempt to return to the exchange camp and they find themselves transferred to the so-called "paradise camp" of Theresienstadt, in Czechoslovakia. Byron Henry is at sea in the Pacific with his friend "Lady" Aster in command. He also learns of wife Natalie's transfer to a new camp but doesn't get much more than that from the State Department. They have a very successful first mission but Lady's orders to shoot survivors off a Japanese troop ship don't sit well with everyone. Pamela Tudsbury makes her way to Moscow and has a brief meeting with Pug Henry. Berel Jastrow manages to escape from the concentration

Still in the camp at Theresienstadt, where prominent Jews have been interned, Natalie and Aaron have to deal with the fact that more and more of ghetto residents are being shipped to concentration camps in the East. Berel Jastrow is now part of the Prague underground and offers to take Louis out of the camp. When Natalie and Louis are ordered transferred to Auschwitz, Aaron tries to bribe the new camp Kommandant. Byron is now the executive officer on his submarine and he learns that his friend Aster has been having an affair with his sister-in-law, Janice. In Moscow, Pug tells Pamela Tudsbury that he is still receiving anonymous letters about Rhoda's infidelity and that he has decided to return to Washington to find out for himself what is going on. He also has to do business with Rhoda's new friend, Col. Hack Harrison.

It's 1944 and the Allies are preparing for D-day. Pug Henry is now a Rear Admiral and he again meets Pamela Tudsbury at her fiancé's residence, but their meeting is brief as he must return to the Pacific fleet. They do decide they have a future together however. Some members of Hitler's High Command plot to assassinate him, but their first attempt is unsuccessful. Leslie Slote has joined the Army and parachutes behind enemy lines for the D-Day invasions. His job is to organize resistance fighters. After getting a last minute reprieve, Nathalie decides to accept Berel Jastrow's offer of taking little Louis out of the camp. Before they can get him out, they find themselves in the SS interrogation center where the camp commander finds a way to make Nathalie more compliant.

In the so-called paradise ghetto of Theresienstadt, the Nazis prepare for a visit by neutral observers by cleaning up the village, distributing new clothes to the inhabitants and setting any number of happy scenes. The visit goes so well that the Nazis decide to make a film for which Aaron Jastrow must write script. Those plotting to overthrow Hitler make one last attempt on July 20, 1944 resulting in the execution of Count von Stauffenberg and the other plotters. Field Marshall Rommel is seriously hurt in a car accident but he too must pay the price for his participation in the plot. Still in the Pacific, Pug Henry prepares for the battle of Leyte Gulf while Byron becomes the commanding officer of his submarine. Nathalie and Aaron are transferred to Auschwitz.

Nathalie and Aaron spend four days traveling to Auschwitz; on arrival, one of them is sent directly to the gas chambers. In the Philippines Sea, Byron Henry, in command of a submarine, gets ready for his first action as Captain. Hitler plans for one, all out attack against the Allied Forces in the Ardennes forest. The battle is launched in mid-December but by January 1945, Allied air power has ensured the Nazis will not succeed. With the Red Army advancing from the East, Himmler orders that all traces of the death camps be eliminated. In Yalta, the Allied leaders meet for the last time to divide the recovered territories.

In April 1945, FDR dies and several days later Hitler, along with several of his cronies, commits suicide. Pug Henry and Pamela Tudsbury are finally married. President Harry Truman asks him to become his Naval aide, forcing him to delay his honeymoon. On May 8, 1945 the Germans surrender and the war comes to an end in Europe. Pug learns that Nathalie is hospitalized and Byron arranges a transfer to Europe. There he begins his search for Louis. The U.S. drop atomic bombs on Japan bringing World War II to an end.