Edgar Murray Burns chronicles the medical service as the United States entered World War II, beginning with preparations in Portland, moving on to set up facilities across the country, and training and caring for patients in Algeria, Tunisia, and France. This time period proved to be a significant learning experience, not only for the ailments that were being treated, like trench foot, malaria, tuberculosis, typhoid, gonorrhea, and syphilis, but in navigating the language barriers between the medical staff and their patients. New medicines like penicillin were being used, which was a great advancement, but other issues, particularly of anxiety among the soldiers, made the work more complicated.