It begins in the killing fields of France 1918 and moves on to Armistice day 1941, when seven-year-old Teddy Nardo, lies in his parent’s bed listening to his Dad’s stories from World War I -- over the top, no man’s land and machine gun nests. It is one time when he loves his father most. Armistice day was his day. He also loves his mother. But both are irrevocably square and that irritates him. They are also steeped in the Presbyterian ethic. This is more than an irritation. It is an affliction.

But with the beginning of World War II the walls of fortress church are breached and exciting people come pouring in: people who buy on the black market, a sexy teacher, a bipolar uncle, enticing teenage girls and an unhygienic prostitute.

But then the charismatic Rev. Geoffrey Hartman and his exquisitely charming wife Sara come to town. Rev G. was a chaplain in the 101st Airborne, serving at Normandy and the Battle of the Bulge. They galvanize Teddy’s spirituality, but bring with them an intense sensuality that leaves him shaken at the Bible Reading Contest.

Jerry Tovo grew up in Latrobe Pennsylvania, a one-time steel town forty miles east of Pittsburgh during the forties and fifties. For a number of years he taught philosophy, particularly aesthetics and philosophy in literature, on the graduate and undergraduate levels, and published A Critical Preface to Philosophy. He then switched fields to medical writing and filmmaking. He edited medical news magazines and wrote, produced and edited medical education films. Currently he devotes his time to writing fiction.