Every life has a cornerstone. Some are made of clay, some are made of rock, and a few are made of duty, honor and blood.
It�s 1944, toward the end of the Second World War, but far away from the action. Ian McKenzie, a bright fifteen-year-old street kid ready to take anyone on, has been sent to a Puget Sound summer camp to be straightened out. Andy Ackerman, the counselor assigned to the camp�s charity cases, is a young man fresh from the war in the Pacific, angry, demanding, unorthodox, dangerous.
Ian and his cabin of outcasts spend the summer building a chimney for the camp�s lodge, while all the other boys are enjoying camp life, water sports and forgetting about the war. Through Ackerman�s tough love and the sharing of a strenuous task, Ian learns to solve problems, from discovering and unearthing rocks for the chimney�s perfection to finding a way to get along with a street kid from a rival neighborhood. He gains pride and a sense of honor and, as Ackerman unveils his dark secrets, Ian learns to cope with fears and responsibilities he�s never imagined. Most important, he learns how to care for someone else and to care about his own life. It is tragedy that forms the cornerstones of Ian�s life and make this novel something truly special and moving.
This coming-of-age story is framed by Ian�s return to the camp nearly fifty years later, as a naval admiral, and his eventual discovery of Ackerman�s final secret.
