The skeletal remains of an infant are found in the walls of a stately home under renovation. The house, located in New Bedford, MA, had been built by the Whaling Captain Anthony Spooner in the mid 1800s.

Daniel O’Malley, Chief Homicide Inspector, and his newly appointed detective, William Normandin, unearth evidence as far away as upstate New York. The previous occupants of the house included the dowager Abigail Spooner. Inspector O’Malley discovers that her son, Lieutenant Mortimer, presently serving on the USS Little in the South Pacific had exhibited strange and disturbing behaviors as a young man.

During the time of the investigation members of the Lepage family volunteer to serve in the European and Pacific theaters of World War II. This large extended French-Canadian family comes from the wooden three-decker section of the city, adjacent to the thriving mills that now provide the economic engine for the city of New Bedford.

One of the Lepages befriends a depressed Lieutenant Mortimer who awaits surgery to remove shrapnel from his spine, an injury that the Lieutenant had sustained when his ship was sunk by Japanese forces off Guadalcanal. This friendship between two persons of very different backgrounds assists the Lieutenant in facing his surgery and subsequent rehabilitation with bravery. Revelations are shared between them.

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