In The Lookout Woman, Florence is a middle-aged woman who has spent her adult years catering to a husband who turned out to be a disappointment while raising an honorable son. As events unfold and her domestic world changes, she ends up a fire spotter on a mountaintop abutting Glacier National Park because the shortage of men who have gone off to the war leaves openings for women.
She faces isolation, fends off unwanted advances from the packer who brings her supplies, discovers and nurses back to health a traumatized boy, enjoys long-distance phone companionship with three male spotters on towers in the area, and finds a spark of joy. Until she and the boy are taken prisoner by Martin, a Nazi spy. (follow Martin's path from Europe to the Northern Rockies)
Florence finds more than fires.