A small-town boy from Nebraska, Ethan Vanderbilt leaves the windswept plains behind and joins the U.S. Navy in 1932. He quickly moves up the ranks, becoming a chief petty officer in 1940. With a stable career and a hefty salary, Ethan figures it's time to find a nice girl and settle down. While on shore leave in Honolulu, Ethan spots his dream gal, Mystic "Missy" Bay. She's on vacation from Duluth, Minnesota, and the two hit it off immediately. It's not long before Ethan's hopping a ship back to the States to travel to Minnesota to propose to the love of his life; they marry and move to Hawaii. For Ethan, everything is going according to plan. Then the unthinkable happens. The Japanese bomb Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. With the world aflame, Missy returns to Duluth while Ethan heads for the Pacific. Her letters keep him going, and as he reads about how she's raising their two children while working in a defense job, Ethan realizes he has a lot to look forward to when the war's over... if he survives. A moving historical novel, The Beautiful Mistake, portrays the heroic deeds of the Greatest Generation and the power of true love.