In the fall of 1969, while thousands of troops are being deployed to Vietnam, Whitney Ingram begins to chronicle the triumphs and turbulence of her freshman year at Grosvenor University. Thirty-three years later, as the country enters another controversial war, Whitney’s journal falls into the hands of the student assigned to her dorm room. As a junior transfer student placed on the freshman floor of her residence hall, Claire Delaney is hungry for friendship, even if it comes in the form of words on pages. What begins as a source of intrigue quickly leads to an obsession. The line begins to blur between her feelings for Whitney – and Whitney’s boyfriend, Sean Macmillan – and her own evolving relationships. Claire cannot save Sean when he is deployed to Vietnam. She cannot help Whitney as she struggles with conflicted feelings over an unexpected pregnancy and over escalating antiwar protests. But maybe, if she reads to the end, Claire will begin to understand why something so valuable was left behind. And maybe she will know how to find Whitney so she can return her diary to her.