November, 1944
It’s funny: I’ve always lived in San Francisco, so it feels like a normal city to me. But I suppose it isn’t a typical place at all, is it?
Maybe it’s the war that has made me see my hometown in a new light. For the past few years, the city has been bursting with servicemen from all across the country, passing through on their way to the Pacific. I meet lots of them through my volunteer work as a junior hostess at the USO. Many of these fellows are amazed by San Francisco, and I get to see it through their eyes.
So in a way, I too am discovering my own city. This past year, ever since I inherited the seamstress shop from my mentor, I’ve seen so many parts of it I never knew before.
Take Nob Hill, for example, where the richest San Franciscans live. Cynthia Burke, the newly-married socialite, lives here. She called me to remake an evening gown for her, and I tried hard not to look too obviously impressed by her gorgeous penthouse apartment; it’s such a far cry from the orphanage where I grew up. But I’ve always had a flair for style and design, and I’m confident in my sewing abilities. Hopefully this will be the commission that opens doors for me.
Not far from the Burkes’ apartment is the Mark Hopkins Hotel. The rooftop bar, The Top of the Mark, is a popular place for servicemen and their girls. The room is full of the swirl of conversation, laughter, the clink of glasses. There are often tears, too, as couples get ready to say goodbye. But when you are there looking down at the city, it’s as if the whole world somehow belongs to you.
Golden Gate Park is the green heart of the city. There’s a lake with a little island, and you can rent rowboats. I went rowing here last April with Johnny, a sailor I met at the USO. It was a beautiful day, and it really felt like the start of something special …but I try not to think too much about that, or about him.
This is the War Memorial Opera House, where the ballet performs. In my spare time, I’m helping to make costumes for their next production, which opens on Christmas Eve. They’re doing a ballet that’s never been performed in the U.S before, called The Nutcracker. It’s been a challenge to make costumes in wartime, with all the rationing of materials, but I’ve loved being able to enter the backstage world that most people never get to see.
A short drive south of the city, there’s a place on the coast called Moss Beach. Max Burke, Cynthia’s businessman husband, took me to dinner here so we could talk about the nightclub he’s opening and which I’m helping him design. I was dazzled by the ocean view, but even more compelling was what I learned about Max. I assumed he’d always been wealthy, but he actually grew up poor and made his fortune through sheer determination. It’s clear that he doesn’t quite fit into Cynthia’s world of old San Francisco money … maybe that’s why she seems so cold toward him.
Of course, our most famous San Francisco sight is the Golden Gate Bridge. I’ve heard sailors say that when they are heading off to war, the whole ship of men goes totally silent when it passes under the bridge. They know that San Francisco was the last bit of home soil they will touch for a long while… or ever, in some cases. It’s a sobering thought.
You just can’t get away from the war here in San Francisco. You see it in the battleships on the bay, in the signs advertising war bonds. Most of all, you see it in the flocks of servicemen exploring the town on their precious weekend of leave. They’re discovering the city and themselves, getting every bit of meaning out of life that they can.
In my own way, so am I.
A Novel
For fans of Christina Baker Kline and Fiona Davis, a coming-of-age story about a young woman discovering love, loss, and the power of her own creativity in World War II San Francisco.
San Francisco in 1944 is a bustling place, a revolving door of soldiers and sailors passing through on their way to the war in the Pacific. Twenty-year-old Irene Cleary, however, is not going anywhere. Although she’d love to travel, the seamstress shop she inherited from her mentor keeps her firmly rooted in the only city she’s ever known. She pours her energy into dressmaking and volunteers for the war effort by dancing with servicemen at the USO.
But Irene’s life is transformed when she designs a gown for Cynthia Burke, the socialite whose new marriage to Max, a handsome Chicago businessman, is the talk of the Nob Hill elite. As Irene is drawn into the Burkes’ glamorous, troubled orbit, and as she becomes absorbed in making costumes for the first American performance of a ballet called The Nutcracker, she finds herself on the threshold of exhilarating, perilous new worlds . . . and the most surprising discoveries of all will be the ones about herself.
Set in a vibrant city during a turbulent time, The World at Home is a coming-of-age story about creativity, loss, and the many lessons we learn from love.
Historical [ She Writes Press, On Sale: December 9, 2025, Paperback / e-Book, ISBN: 9798896360186 / eISBN: 9798896360193 ]
Ginny Kubitz Moyer is a California native with a love of local history. Her novel The Seeing Garden, which won Silver in the Foreword INDIES Book of the Year Award for historical fiction, brings to life the vanished world of the San Francisco Bay Area's great estates. Her novel A Golden Life, which earned a starred Kirkus review, takes place in Hollywood and the Napa Valley in 1938. An avid weekend gardener, she lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with her husband, two sons, and one rescue dog. Learn more at her website.
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