Jack Dulaney is a down-on-his-luck writer who finds himself working on a chain-gang in California in the early 1940s. He manages to escape and make his way across the country to find the love of his life, Holly Carnahan, finally tracking her down at Regina Beach in New Jersey, where she is singing with a jazz band. Dulaney becomes a writer for radio during its heyday, and continues to pursue the elusive Holly, while the war reaches even into their happy-go-lucky homefront lives.