War steals children and gives us little soldiers in return. Twelve-year-old Western Union messenger Howie Logan is the darling of his island community until he becomes the Angel of Death overnight. After the 1942 Battle of Midway, he forces himself to take on the formidable task of delivering military death telegrams to both family and life-long friends until it breaks him, feeling that with each message he kills the victim himself. If he doesn't deliver, they will live that much longer...until the war ends. While shunned and feared by the island's families, he vows to protect the life of his best friend, a 12 year old daughter of the general store operator, the community's lone Japanese family.