In the depths of the Second World War, Harold Gray paints a dark vision of stateside America when Annie's most loyal friends turn out to be a boarding house full of thieves, forgers, and mindreaders. The red-garbed orphan sees that petty politicians and their underworld companions can deprive a small town of freedom just as easily as can foreign spies, and that a big city can be home to a larger and even more dangerous threat to national security...