As the story begins, Navy Captain Victor "Pug" Henry has been appointed naval attaché in Berlin. During the voyage to Europe, Victor befriends a British radio personality, Alistair "Talky" Tudsbury, and his daughter, Pamela. While in Germany, Victor meets a German general, Armin von Roon, who later becomes the viewpoint character for the German side of the war, and witnesses the worsening of the German government's discrimination against the Jews.
He also notices the intent of the Germans to invade Poland. Realizing that this would mean war with the Soviet Union, he concludes the only way for Germany to safely invade is to agree not to go to war with the Soviets, even though the Communists and Fascists are sworn, mortal enemies. Going over his supervisor's head, he submits a report predicting the Nazi-Soviet nonaggression pact before it takes place. When the pact is made public, the report draws President Roosevelt's attention to him, and the President commands Pug to be his unofficial eyes and ears in Europe. This assignment delays again his desired sea command, but later will give him the opportunity to travel to London, Rome and Moscow and meet historical figures like Winston Churchill, Hitler, Mussolini and Stalin.
His wife Rhoda, meanwhile, is forced to spend time away from her husband, first in Berlin and then in Washington, and begins a relationship with a government engineer named Palmer Kirby, who later will be involved in the first phase of the Manhattan Project. For his part, Pug begins a platonic but very close and borderline romantic relationship with Pamela, but can't decide to leave his wife Rhoda for her.
After having finally obtained command of a battleship, the USS California, he leaves for Pearl Harbor from Moscow, where he has discussed lend-lease issues and observed a battle. He flies over Asia and spends time in Manila listening to the radio broadcast of the yearly game between Army and Navy. When his flight is approaching Pearl Harbor they get the radio message that Pearl is under attack and when they approach the naval yard they see the burning ships—including his own.
Pug's three children have their own story lines. His older son, Warren, is a Naval Academy graduate who enrolls in the Navy Flight School in Florida. His daughter, Madeline, gets involved in American radio.
The child most prominent in the story is middle child and younger son Byron, named after the English poet. Though a Columbia University graduate and holding a naval reserve commission, Byron has not committed himself to a career. In 1939 he accepts a job as a research assistant for an expatriate Jewish American author, Aaron Jastrow, who is best known for his book A Jew's Jesus and lives in Siena, Italy.
Byron also meets Jastrow's niece, Natalie, and her former boyfriend, Leslie Slote, who still loves her and works for the Department of State. Readers later discover that Natalie and Slote are also good friends of Pamela Tudsbury from their time in Paris together.
Byron and Natalie visit her family's native town in Poland, Medzice, for a wedding.During the visit to Medzice, they travel through the town of O?wi?cim; Auschwitz by its former Austrian name. When the war begins - they travel from Medice to Warsaw; ahead of the invading German army. In Warsaw they are trapped in the siege and are evacuated along with other neutral citizens.
Now in love with Byron, after his unexpected heroism during their escape from Warsaw, Natalie ends her relationship with Slote on good terms and accepts Byron's proposal of marriage. She returns briefly to America for Warren's wedding, and while there her father dies of a heart attack upon hearing of the invasion of Norway and Denmark on April 9th, 1940.
In 1941, she marries Byron and devotes herself to getting her reluctant uncle out of Europe to escape the coming Holocaust, soon discovering she is pregnant.
All the storylines are left at a cliffhanger as the war begins. Rhoda makes and then retracts a request for a divorce. With the California already out of action, Pug is given command of a cruiser, the USS Northampton. Byron has been called to active duty as a submarine officer; and his brother Warren has graduated from Pensacola, married a congressman's daughter, Janice Lacouture, and is assigned to USS Enterprise. Aaron, Natalie, and Natalie's infant son Louis are trapped in Europe as the war begins. These storylines continue through War and Remembrance.
Genre: Drama, Mini-Series
Imdb: click here
