Ed makes a choice. Mary makes 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. Catholic pacifist 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, landing him in a barbaric mental asylum with no ticket out. Ed's baffling fall from grace alienates him from family and sets his devoted sister on a mission to unravel his fate's cryptic circumstances and salvage his honor. While Ed struggles for justice with his mind and humanity intact, Mary discovers the wages of family secrecy and the nation's shame.