The Brightwood code
(Book)

It's been two months since Edda returned from the frontlines of World War I, where she served as a "Hello Girl," facilitating wartime communications through switchboards with a series of daily changing codes. Now, she's a telephone operator for Bell Systems in Baltimore, trying to forget the mistake she made in France that cost thirty-four men their lives. Unfortunately, her past comes roaring back when an unknown caller begs her to tell the truth and yells "Brightwood," the very code name that she was unable to remember at a critical moment in the war. Quickly spiraling, Edda drunkenly ends up telling her neighbor Theo what happened, and, after she receives a second ominous call, he agrees to help her track down the caller and find out what they want. Their search, however, also sheds light on a war that was violent in ways the world had never seen before and that scarred an entire generation.