Stanford University is out of reach for most Colorado teens in 1939. The opportunity to gain an education there is beyond nineteen-year-old Dena Caulter's wildest dreams. Yet Uncle Walter, a professor at the prestigious university, as well as the Howard Hughes Aeronautics program offers and Dena is more than willing. Talk of war also breaks up the previously pleasant conversations and laughter that once provided the soundtrack for gatherings between Dena and friends. With opinions voiced, she worries that the boy she secretly crush on-Clay-will be whisked away before she gets the chance to truly know him. Studying blueprints no longer offers the intriguing escape for Dena. Struggling to find balance in a life moving faster than one of Mr. Hughes' airplanes, she must hold on to the Christian values especially when the bright future of her friends and family begins to dim under the threat of war and A Matter of Trust.