Nine Degrees North

Nine Degrees North serves up a coming-of-age free-fall into the transplanted lives of six high-school teenagers in the year 1969. The story unfolds on the island of Kwajalein, a military test facility in the Pacific ocean, and is set against the music of the sixties.

As fifteen-year-old Carrie Conroy and her new friends navigate their isolated surroundings, they experience first loves, loss and the unexpected presence of a military predator, putting them on a fast-track to growing up in a world at war. But when questions arise about the history of Kwajalein and what happens at this military test facility, they are met with radio silence. 

They befriend their High School History teacher who relates to their thirst for knowledge. He risks his job by secretly taking them to a neighboring island where incredible and shocking horrors of the aftermath from the nuclear testing that befell the Marshallese people are revealed to them. Soon thereafter, their close friend's brother is killed in the Vietnam war which fuels their emotions even more. Believing that the hottest places in hell are reserved for those who in a crisis, do nothing, they bond together and orchestrate a dangerous and perilous protest at the military compound which goes terribly awry and leads to deadly circumstances.