Theo has had many boyfriends who wanted to marry her. Since her mother, Mrs. Selworth, has been married many times, Theo is unsure of commitment. Without much thought, she finally accepts the proposal of Air Corps Lieutenant Tom West. After the honeymoon, Tom's father dies and Tom goes into the defense industry. When Theo has a baby, she hates the idea of being matronly and wants to be the old party girl. The problem is that her husband is working constantly. She looks to her friends, who are having their own problems, and to her old flame Captain Lancing. To decide on what she wants to do with her baby and her life, Theo must grow up.—Tony Fontana <[email protected]>

After only knowing each other for three days, blue blooded Bostonian Tom West, a lieutenant in the US Army's Air Corps, asks New York socialite Theo Scofield to marry him, the wedding which takes place two weeks later. The haste is Tom's imminent next assignment which will probably take him into a war zone. Despite the short time that they've known each other, Tom is certain the marriage will be a successful one as he has had around him examples of those successful marriages and long term relationships of many kinds. His own parents have been happily married for thirty years, his best friend, Joe Murdoch, who works with Courtland West, Tom's father, in his military contractor company. Although they've only been married for two years, Tom's two other best friends, Ted and Sissy Mortimer, know they are in it for the long haul. Theo was hesitant to accept Tom's marriage proposal if only because she is the opposite in not having had those examples of successful marriages or supportive home lives around her, she leading a carefree life in the process. Her mother has moved easily and casually from one marriage to another, she currently Mrs. Selwyn. Until the wedding, Theo had not seen her San Francisco based father in fifteen years. Theo had been asked by many military men to marry them, the only other one she seriously considered but then quickly dismissed being from Tom's colleague, Captain Miles Lancing. Beyond Theo knowing that they will live in staid Boston which is outside of her mentality and learning of a somewhat inconsequential white lie Tom told that led to their marriage, the issue of geographic distance between her and Tom as he receives his next assignment ends up not being quite what they were expecting, but which ends up having its own pressures on their marriage. Other obstacles emotionally for Theo are learning that others are not quite as happy as they appear on the surface, and Miles coming in and out of her life as a reminder of her old partying ways.—Huggo